Unexpected Feelings
by Air-and-water123
Summary: Modern AU. Katara Aqua attends Four Nations High School with her best friends Aang and Suki along with her boyfriend Zuko. After people start questioning her about her close relationship with Aang, she starts to see that her feelings for him run deeper than she had expected them to. Will he return her feelings? Or will she be doomed to be just friends forever? Kataang.
1. Chapter 1: Detention

**Hey guys! I'm starting up another story! I normally wouldn't do more than one at once, but I tend to rush stories when I want to start others, and I want to make the best quality stories for you guys as possible, so I'm doing more than one at a time. Though to make sure that it doesn't get too out of hand, the most stories I will do at once is three, but more likely will only be two, so don't worry about me falling behind on them. I won't let that happen, as it's a terrible pain on readers to have to wait while a story in on Hiatus or is abandoned completely. I assure you, I will not abandon any stories and I will not put any of them on Hiatus. Anyways, this new story is a modern AU with the Gaang in high school. You'll find out more details as the story progresses, so I hope you guys enjoy! **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender. **

* * *

Katara Aqua walked quickly down the hallway to her class. She had been running late due to having spent too much time hanging out with her best friend, Aang White. They would always hang out with each other at lunch in their not so secret meeting place, much to other peoples' suspicion. Though they didn't know it, they had a secret love for each other that had been between them since they had first met in the third grade. Everyone always teased them about how close they were, despite Katara already being in a relationship with Zuko Agni for a year. Aang was in between girlfriends at the time, but was okay with that as long as he had his best friend to be with him. As great of friends as they were, their closeness often got each other into trouble. Like today, for example: They had all but skipped most of their fourth period class to hang out and talk, even going as far as to chase each other around the hallways when no one was watching. After they had their fun, they realized what was wrong and agreed to run to their classes as quickly as possible, but not without giving each other a long hug goodbye. And that's where Katara found herself as she finally made it to her classroom. Luckily for her, her Waterbending Master, Pakku, was her step-grandfather, and would be more lenient on her than Aang's teacher likely would be. _I hope he doesn't get into too much trouble,_ she thought worriedly, _The only reason why we are this late is because I decided that it would be more fun to run around in the hallways than go to class. He shouldn't get punished because of what I made him do._ Shaking these thoughts from her mind, she opened the door slowly and peeked in to see Pakku standing there with a knowing grin. "Well, look here, class. Miss Aqua has decided to grace us with her presence today, if only for," he paused as he looked at the time, "Five more minutes," he finished, making the class laugh.

Katara smiled sheepishly, "Sorry, Master Pakku, I just got a little distracted I guess."

"Oh yes, I've heard Mr. White can be very distracting indeed," he chuckled, making her blush, "So, do you want to beg in front of the class, or do you just want to go to detention after school?"

She took a moment to consider her options. Normally she would grovel to get out of it, but her stubbornness and pride would not allow it. _And maybe Aang will be there, and we can hang out more_, she thought hopefully. It amazed her sometimes just how much her best friend was on her mind, more so than her own boyfriend, but she just chalked it up to how close they were. She made her decision, "You know what? I'll just take the detention," she told him, catching him completely by surprise.

"Wow," he said with wide eyes, "I thought for sure that you would grovel. Then again, you are Kanna's granddaughter after all, so I guess I should have known better." He wrote up a little slip and gave it to her, "You know where to go. Detention will be immediately after school ends. Don't be late." Katara nodded and went back to her seat, only for the bell to ring as she sat down. Pakku sighed, "Alright class, we'll continue this tomorrow. Dismissed!" The class got up quickly and left. Pakku stopped Katara as she tried to leave, "May I speak to you for a moment?"

"Uh, sure," she responded. He closed the door and made his way to his desk, "So, what did you want to talk to me about? I already got detention, so I doubt there's much else you can do."

Pakku laughed, "Oh, rest assured, I'm not going to yell at you or anything. I just wanted to ask you something."

Katara became surprised, "Okay, shoot."

"Well, it's just that you spend an awful lot of time with Mr. White which inadvertently gets you both into fair amounts of trouble," he started, "From what I've heard from your Grandmother, more so than your own boyfriend. I'm just wondering… Why is that?"

"Why is what?" Katara asked confused.

He looked at her seriously, "Why do you spend more time with Aang than your own boyfriend? I understand that he is your best friend, but most people spend most of their time with their partner rather than their friends. It's just a little unusual for two people who are just friends to spend so much time together."

She took a moment to think about it, but couldn't really think of an excuse. "I don't really know," she admitted with a shrug, "I just love being with him. He makes me laugh and we have so much fun and being around him makes me as happy as I can be."

"Ah, I see," he replied with a mischievous grin, already knowing the answer, "Alright, then. I was just curious. You may go."

She nodded and walked out the door, "Bye, Pakku."

Making her way to her next class, her boyfriend ran up and smiled at her, "Hey Tara, how you been?" he asked as he kissed her cheek and took her hand.

"Oh, you know," she shrugged, "Just got detention for skipping most of class, so there's that."

He laughed, "If you're going to skip class, you should probably just skip it the whole way through. I mean, either way you're going to get a detention, so it wouldn't really make a difference."

She grinned, "Yeah, I guess you're right. I didn't mean to skip class, but Aang and I were just messing around during lunch and we lost track of time. I hope he didn't get into too much trouble," she thought aloud worriedly.

Zuko frowned a little. He knew there was something between Katara and Aang, but he didn't know exactly what it was. They spent too much time together, acted almost like a… couple. _No, they don't like each other like _that_, _he tried to reassure himself, _They're just really close friends._ Still, he wondered if there was any truth to that. The evidence wasn't in his favor, considering she spent more time with Aang than himself, but he knew that nothing would happen between them. "I'm sure he'll be fine," he assured her, "He's probably just going to get detention. Then you guys can hang out even more," he said sarcastically.

Katara raised an eyebrow, "Is there something wrong with me wanting to hang out with my best friend?" she asked seriously.

He couldn't help but let the doubt of them just being friends take over, "Well, I'm just saying… most friends don't spend more time together than with their boyfriend/girlfriend. He's my best friend too, but I don't spend as much time with him as you do."

"Zuko, what exactly are you getting at here?" she asked cautiously, "Are you accusing me of something?"

"I don't know," he sighed in frustration, "I just don't like that you guys spend so much time together. I haven't had a proper date with you in a month because you're usually busy hanging out with him."

"What are you so worried about?" Katara asked incredulously. "He's my best friend. Zuko. I don't really know what to tell you, but if you think there's something between us, I can assure you that there's not." Even if she was trying to reassure him, it felt more like she was trying to reassure herself more than anything.

Zuko didn't look like he believed her, but he shrugged, "Okay… if you say so." They finally made it to her class and he kissed her on her forehead, "I'll see you later, Tara. Love you."

"Bye," she responded with a wave and walked into the classroom. He had admitted to her two months ago that he loved her, but she didn't think that she was quite there yet, and she didn't want to lie to him. She didn't want to be in a relationship that had any lies in it; Or at least any lies that she could help. Looking around the room, she noticed her second best friend Suki waiting for her at their shared desk. "Hey Suki," Katara greeted her with a smile.

"Katara!" Suki beamed and gave her a hug, "How's it going? I heard you got detention for hanging out with Aang too long," she teased.

Katara chuckled nervously, "Yeah, I guess so. I didn't want to get in trouble, but we were just having so much fun that we kind of lost track of time. Next thing we knew, class was almost over and we knew that we would be screwed anyway, so we just went and took our punishment."

Suki shook her head at her with a grin, "You and Aang, always getting in trouble. I swear, if you and Zuko weren't dating, I would bet my whole life's savings that you two would end up together."

"Why does everyone keep thinking that?" Katara sighed in exasperation and dropped her head onto the desk, "We're just friends." A strange feeling overcame her as she said that. Though she didn't know it, the words were bitter on her tongue.

"Maybe because you guys spend almost all of your free time together," Suki chuckled, "You spend more time with him than your own boyfriend." She paused. "So, you wouldn't mind if someone else asked him out?" she asked nervously.

Katara looked up at her, "Um, no…" she unknowingly lied, "Why?"

"Well… I kind of… like him," Suki admitted sheepishly, "But I didn't want to do anything if you guys were secretly in love with each other or anything."

A horrible sinking feeling settled in Katara's stomach. It started burning like someone had set her gut on fire, but she just dismissed it as the tacos she had for lunch. "Yeah," she said unsurely, "Go ahead. Like I said, we're just friends." Though the more she said those words, the more she couldn't help but wonder if there was actually any truth in them.

Suki beamed and hugged her, "Thanks, Kat! That means a lot to me."

"No problem," Katara chuckled nervously, feeling entirely thrown. Something was making her uncomfortable. It had been ever since… Pakku had asked why she spent more time with Aang. _He's just a friend, he's just a friend, he's just a friend_, she tried to force herself to believe it. _I can't be jealous. He's had other girlfriends before, and I never got jealous then._ Flashbacks of his previous girlfriends flashed through her mind, along with her reactions to finding out about them. She was surprised to find that she had that same burning feeling in her gut when she had found out about those other girls. _No_, she shut it down quickly, _We're just friends, and that's that. _"So, how are you going to ask him out?" she asked with fake cheeriness in her voice.

"Oh, I was just going to walk up to him and ask him out," Suki replied while responding to a text, "Who knows? Maybe tonight I can get lucky," she winked at Katara, making her inwardly puke at the thought. _What is going on with me?_ Katara asked herself desperately. "I don't know... what_ is_ going on with you Katara?"

"Huh?" she snapped out of her thoughts.

Suki frowned slightly, "You just said 'What is going on with me?' out loud, Kat. Are you okay?" she asked concerned.

"Yeah," Katara tried to convince herself more than her friend, "I guess I'm just having a long day." The rest of the class went by quickly, as she was too wrapped up in her thoughts to really pay attention. Before she knew it, the bell had rung and it was time to go to detention. "I'll see you later, Suki. I gotta go to detention."

"Oh!" Suki exclaimed, "Before you go, do you think you could put in a good word for me with Aang?"

"Sure," Katara replied with a fake smile, "I'll be sure to do that. Bye, Suki." Finally getting out of the classroom, she made her way to detention and saw Aang sitting down in the back of the classroom.

"Kat, come sit over here!" he called with his goofy grin. She smiled. Even after a long day at school, all it took was to see his familiar grin to get her spirits back up. As she walked over to him, her breath hitched in her throat as she looked at him. _Really_ looked at him. She had known he was good looking and strong, but with all of these strange thoughts going through her head, she couldn't help but notice that he was… sexy. _No! Bad Katara!_ she mentally chided herself. _He's just a friend! Get that in your damn mind!_

Shaking her head roughly, she sat next to him and smiled, "How's it going since I beat you at tag?" she teased.

"Well, you know," he chuckled, "Besides getting detention, not too bad."

She frowned a little, "You didn't get yelled at _too _much, did you?"

Aang laughed and gave her a hug, making her heartbeat skyrocket, "No, my teacher just wrote out the slip and slapped it onto my face. No yelling required apparently," he mumbled into her ear, causing her to shiver.

"T-that's good," Katara stuttered nervously.

He looked at her in concern. "Are you okay, Katara? You don't look so good," he told her as he put his hand against her forehead.

"I-I'm fine," she laughed shakily, "W-why d-do you think that?"

"I don't know," he admitted, "You just look like you've seen a ghost and are all clammy. I just want to make sure that you're okay. You mean too much to me to let you be in any kind of pain." Those words with his hot breath on her face were almost too much for her. The way his gray eyes bore into hers that held such deep concern for her… she felt herself starting to lean in as the teacher finally walked in.

"Hello! I am Miss Joo Dee!" the teacher said cheerily, making them both snap to attention.

"Hi, Miss Joo Dee," they both said politely in unison.

"Oh, nice students!" she cheered, "Your kind are rare in detention. I'll tell you what, if you guys can be quiet, you can do whatever you want for the half hour while you're here and I can just read my book. Deal?"

"Yes, Ma'am," they agreed with big smiles. She smiled back and started reading her book. "So," Aang returned to their previous conversation, "You're sure that you're alright?"

Katara nodded slowly, "Yeah, I'm alright. I've just had an… _interesting_ day today is all." She saw the concern deepen on his face, "I'm fine, Aang. Thank you for caring so much." She kissed him on the cheek.

He smiled, "Of course. What else are best friends for? Speaking of which, how are you and Zuko lately? Is he still being Mr. Gloomy?" he laughed.

"Well…" she tried not to sell out her boyfriend. Aang just gave her a look. "Yeah," she sighed, "but I'm sure I'll get used to it eventually."

"Of course," Aang patted her on the back, "It took me three years before I got used to it. You've only known him for a year, so it's likely going to take you longer than that. Especially since you see him the most out of anybody."

She didn't say anything for a moment. "Well actually, I spend most of my time with you, apparently," she admitted sheepishly.

He raised an eyebrow. "Really?" he wondered as he thought it over. "I guess you're right," he chuckled, "I didn't even think about that. I guess you just _love_ spending more time with your best friend than with your boyfriend, huh?"

She winced a little when he said love, "Um, yeah. I guess so. Though I should probably make more of an effort to spend time with him."

"Do you have to?" he pouted. "I love spending time with you. You're the only one who makes me as happy as I am when I'm with you," he admitted, causing her to remember what she had earlier told Mr. Pakku. _Is that what love is?_ she wondered.

"It wouldn't really be fair to him if I spent more time with my best friend than my own boyfriend, don't you think?" she asked him seriously.

He sighed sadly, "Yeah, I guess." Then a thought came to mind, "Well, what if I became both for you, so that way you wouldn't have that problem?" he joked lightly.

"Uh… I-" she stuttered, her heart rate going back to off the charts.

Aang burst out laughing. After he finally settled down, he finally gave her his signature grin, "I'm only kidding, Kat. You're my best friend, but it's not like we have romantic feelings for each other."

A strange feeling settled into her stomach, but this time it was one she easily recognized. Disappointment. The feeling she so often got from her annoying older brother. "Yeah, totally," she half-heartedly agreed, despite completely freaking out on the inside. _What is going on with me?! _

"So, are we still on for our weekly Friday night hangouts?" he asked with a smile, "I got that movie you had been wanting to watch for a while."

She gasped. "You got "The Fault in Our Stars?" she asked excitedly.

"Yeah," he smirked, "I knew how badly you wanted to watch it, so I saved up for a while and finally got it."

She tackled him in a hug, "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

"Hey, don't worry about it," he smiled softly as he returned her hug, "Anything for you, Kat."

She looked into his eyes again, "What did I ever do to get such an amazing friend?" she asked amazed.

"Who said you earned it?" he teased, "Maybe I'm just a dream that you're going to wake up from one of these days," he joked.

Katara slapped him lightly on the shoulder, "Oh, shut it. Now, what time do you want to come over? Zuko won't be there at all because he's going to go hang out with Toph and Sokka at the game tonight."

"I've got to run home and grab my stuff, but after that if it's okay, then I'd like to come over as soon as possible," he told her.

Katara smiled, "Sure, then we can order a pizza and watch the movie."

Aang groaned, "Do I have to _actually_ watch it, or can I play on my phone while _you_ watch it?"

"Nope. Sorry Aang, but you have to watch it," she demanded, "That's the whole point of having a movie to watch; So we can watch it together."

"Fine," Aang rolled his eyes, "If you insist." He looked over to the clock and saw it was time to go. "Well, looks like we've done our time in the slammer," he chuckled, "Let's get out of here." She nodded and they grabbed their stuff. "Bye, Miss Joo Dee," Aang waved politely as they walked out.

"Good bye!" she smiled widely and waved back. They made their way out to the parking lot and got to their cars which of course were parked right next to each other. Before they got into their cars, Aang gave her another long hug, making Katara feel safe in his arms as he held her. She buried her face into his chest and smelled his cologne: Smoky red cedar with a hint of cinnamon. It was intoxicating and she loved how it always made her feel calm and safe. _I could just stay like this forever…_ she thought contentedly. Then her eyes snapped open, _Stop it! Stop it! Stop it!_ she all but screamed at herself in her head. _He's just my best friend! _Though the more she kept trying to fight it, the more it seemed to just keep getting worse. She didn't know how much more of this she could take.

After what felt like forever and no time at all, he finally pulled away and smiled at her, "I'll see you later, Kat. And remember-"

"No meat on your side of the pizza," she chuckled, "I know, we've only done this a thousand times, Aang. I'll see you later." She gave him one last hug, trying to get another whiff of his cologne and quickly got into her car. After finally getting out of the parking lot, she couldn't help but wonder… was she really in love with her best friend?


	2. Chapter 2: The Sleepover

Chapter 2: The Sleepover

**Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender. **

* * *

"Katara!" Sokka called from the couch.

"What do you want, Sokka!" she yelled back as she brushed out her hair in the bathroom mirror. Ever since she had started considering the possibility she might be in love with her best friend, she had become extremely self-conscious, even going as far as to put on makeup and perfume. Something she never had done for anyone else, not even her current boyfriend. She didn't understand this sudden desperation and insecurity, but there wasn't anything she could do about it until she had done what needed to be done. It was starting to drive her a little insane, but the more she thought about it, the more it all seemed to fit. All the times they would hang out together, the way she was drawn to him like a moth to light and couldn't go a day without seeing his smile, how much people teased them about being a couple. She might actually love him. And that scared her a little. What if she did love him and he didn't feel the same? What if he found out and hated her for it? His friendship meant so much to her. What if he never wanted to see her again because of it?

Sokka's yell broke her thoughts, "Have you ordered the pizza yet? I'm hungry!"

She rolled her eyes and sighed. "Yes, Sokka! It should be on it's way! Maybe if you didn't eat for three people, you wouldn't be so hungry all the time!" she yelled back.

He surprised her by showing up at the door to the bathroom, leaning against it when he noticed her putting on makeup. "_You're _putting on _makeup_?" he asked in astonishment, "Who are you and what have you done with my sister?"

She rolled her eyes again and shot back, "Your sister is the person you see when you look into the mirror. And let me tell you Sokka, she's _ugly_."

"Well, at least _I'm_ not putting on makeup for…" he trailed off questioningly, "Wait a minute… why _are_ you putting on makeup? You've never put makeup on for any of your boyfriends, so why are you doing it when Aang comes over all of a sudden?" Then it hit him. "You figured it out, didn't you?"

"Figured what out?" she asked nervously.

"Don't bother trying to lie to me, Katara," he warned her, "There's only one possible reason that you've decided to put on makeup now out of all the times he's come over before."

She tried to play dumb, "I still don't know what you're talking about…"

"Katara," he said in the most serious tone she had ever heard him be in, "Don't play this game. You know _exactly_ what I'm talking about. Do you want to admit it, or do I have to say it for you?"

Katara sighed and put down her makeup, "Okay, okay… I think I might… be in love with Aang," she admitted quietly.

Sokka didn't say anything for a moment until he finally grinned. "Well, it's about time that you figured it out," he chuckled and patted her on the back, "Oh! Toph owes me twenty bucks!"

She looked at him in confusion, "What do you mean 'It's about time that you figured it out'?" Then her eyes widened as the truth smacked her in the face. "_You knew_?!" she asked angrily.

"Yeah," he shrugged nonchalantly, "Is there a problem here?"

Katara walked up to him and grabbed him roughly by his ear lobe, making him cry out in pain, "Exactly how long have you known that I've been in love with him?" she whispered menacingly into his ear.

"Easy there!" he tried to placate her, "I didn't think it would be a big deal! I figured you would figure it out eventually, so I didn't say anything!"

"How long?!"

He raised his hands in surrender as he winced in pain, "Okay! Okay! I've known since I first met him when you first brought him home when you were in third grade. Even though I didn't know what it was at the time, I knew that you there was something different about the way you were looking at him back then. I didn't figure out what that was until tenth grade when I saw Toph looking at me in that same way." Katara finally let go and he sighed in relief. "You know, you can be a real bully when you're angry," he informed her while rubbing the offended ear lobe.

"You deserved it for not telling me!" she yelled in his face, "All this time, I've been telling people left and right that we're just friends, and now I find out that I've been in love with him since the third grade. What do you expect me to do when you say you've known for at least two years that I'm in love with him?!"

"Sorry sis, but I thought it would be best if you figured it out on your own," he put his hands back up, "Though I'll be honest, it took you a lot longer than I had expected."

Katara thumped her hand on her forehead. "What am I going to do?" she groaned, "What if he doesn't love me back? I don't want to lose his friendship." Then a thought popped into her mind. "Zuko! I'm dating Zuko! I can't date him if I'm in love with someone else, can I? That wouldn't be fair to him! What am I going to do…" she trailed off fearfully.

Sokka walked up and hugged her tightly, "Hey, it's going to be okay, sis. Look, you don't have to decide anything right now. I would recommend before you do anything that you find out if Aang returns your feelings or not. Then you can make a decision based off of that. You need to take this one step at a time, okay?"

"Okay," she breathed out slowly, "Thank you, Sokka. I'm sorry I hurt your ear lobe."

He smiled, "It's okay, sis. I understand. I would probably be freaking out too if I had just found out that I was madly in love with my best friend since third grade."

She blushed heavily. "Madly in love? I'm not-" he gave her a look, "Fine, I guess I am." She leaned against the counter dejectedly, "How could I have missed that this whole time?"

"It's not easy to see stuff like that when you're too close to a situation," he told her wisely, "It's like when you look at a picture from a foot away. You can't get the full picture until you take a few steps back and get a better look. Only then will you see the whole truth."

Katara looked at him in amazement, "You know, Sokka? Sometimes you can be really wise."

"Eh, it's a gift," he bragged, "Now, you know how you feel, but you need to see how he feels. Tonight would be a good night to dig around and see if he does feel the same."

She thought about something, "But if you could tell so easily that I loved him, how come you can't tell if he loves me back or not?"

"Because I know you a lot more than I know him, Katara. I can read your emotions like I can read the back of a cookbook," he joked.

She laughed and shook her head, "Yeah right, you don't cook. I do all the cooking here, and you know it."

He shook his head, "Not all of the time. When you're not here and I'm hungry and out of money, I cook my own food." He saw the angry look on her face and let out a sigh of relief as the doorbell rang. "I got it!" Sokka ran down the stairs and opened it, "Aang, buddy! Come on in! We're still waiting for the pizza, but other than that, Katara's all ready for you."

"What do you mean, 'Katara's all ready for you'?" he asked puzzled.

"Um… nothing!" Sokka put on a fake smile, "Anyways, go ahead and put your stuff in Katara's room and we'll play some games until the pizza gets here. I'm only staying until after I've eaten, then I'm going to the game. You could come with us if you want?" he offered.

Aang laughed, "As fun as that sounds, I think Katara would kill me if I missed out on our Friday Night hangout."

"You got that right," Sokka mumbled to himself as Aang walked in.

"What was that?" Aang asked as he grabbed a soda from the fridge.

Sokka's eyes widened, "Nothing!" he responded quickly.

Aang looked at him in concern, "Sokka, is everything okay with you and your sister today? First she's acting all jumpy like she had seen a ghost, and now you seem… well basically the same. Are you guys okay?"

Sokka took a calming breath, "Yeah, we're fine. Some things that weren't expected came up is all. Nothing to worry about," he reassured him.

"I don't know…" Aang trailed off doubtfully.

"We're fine, man," he reassured him. "You'll find out soon enough," he whispered to himself again.

Aang gave him a look, "Sokka, I don't know why you keep mumbling to yourself. You know I can hear you right?"

Sokka's eyes widened, "How can you hear me? I'm being super quiet!"

"I'm an Airbender, Sokka," Aang laughed, "Anything that travels on the airwaves, I can hear as long as it's going in my direction. Which is pretty impossible to miss, because sound travels through the air in all directions, if some are less loud than others."

He let out a long sigh, "Of course you can, Mr. 'Youngest Airbending Master in the history of the world'," he complained.

"So what exactly am I going to find out soon enough?" Aang asked as he took a sip of a pepsi.

"Look, it's not my place to tell you," Sokka told him, "I promise, I don't know exactly when you'll find out, but you will find out soon, okay?" Aang nodded slowly and Sokka let out another sigh of relief, "Good, otherwise Katara would kill me."

He felt a hand on his shoulder, "Okay Sokka, I'm not saying you have to tell me what's going on, but… what the hell is going on? I know Katara wants to kill you for many reasons, but this seems to be a lot more… secretive."

Sokka shook his head, "Like I told you, I can't tell you anything. You'll find out soon enough. Now can we _please_ forget about this and play some games?" he begged.

"Fine," Aang agreed reluctantly, "But I'm watching you and your sister until I find out what the hell is going on."

"I'm okay with that," Sokka responded simply, "Now come on, I'm going to beat you in Madden and there's nothing you can do about it."

Aang smirked, "In your dreams, Sokka. In your dreams." They both laughed and sat down on the couch and played until Katara finally decided to come down the stairs. "Hey, Aang." He looked over and his jaw dropped as he looked at his best friend. She was wearing a light blue tank top with some skinny jeans with her wavy hair in curls cascading down her shoulders. For some reason she had decided to put on mascara and eyeshadow, but he wasn't complaining. It was strange though, for she had never put on makeup… ever. _Wait, stop thinking of stuff like that_, he chided himself, _She might be gorgeous, but she's just a friend… right?_ Shaking his head, he smiled at her. "Wow," he breathed, but once again reminded himself that she was his best friend. "I mean… you look really good Katara."

She smiled widely, "Thanks. So," she sat down next to him on the couch, trying to get her perfume into his system, "Are you excited for tonight?"

"Yeah, I am," he chuckled, "Except for the movie, but otherwise yeah, we'll have a lot of fun tonight."

"You know," Katara started sadly looking down at her feet, "If you _really_ don't want to watch the movie, we don't have to."

He cupped her cheek and raised her to look at him in the eyes, "Hey, I know how badly you want to see this movie. Just because I'm not overly excited to see it doesn't mean that I'm just going to force you to not watch it. I would watch that movie a thousand times if it meant I got to hang out with you during it."

She grinned with tears in her eyes and tackled him in a hug while he laughed and returned it. "Thank you, Aang," she whispered happily, "You don't know how much that means to me."

"Of course, Kat," he whispered back in her ear, "You mean a lot to me. What kind of best friend would I be if I didn't sacrifice something as small as watching a movie that I don't really want to see? Remember: I would do anything for you."

"Wow," Sokka drawled, "Can you guys get this lovey-dovey crap over with before you guys start making out already? I don't need to see that."

Katara shot him a death glare, effectively making him shut up and return to the game, "Sokka, shut the hell up."

Aang smirked, "You know what? Maybe we should, Kat."

"What?" she asked in astonishment, completely caught off guard by what he had said.

"If he wants to complain about us being so close, maybe we should teach him not to," he explained with a grin, "That way he won't do it anymore. What do you say?"

Her heart thundered in her chest. _Does this mean he _does_ feel the same? Or is he just trying to get revenge on Sokka? Or, it could be both_, she thought hopefully. _Obviously he doesn't have a problem making out with me, so he obviously doesn't think of me as a sister._ _It's a start, and I really want to do this. _"But what about Zuko?" she asked him.

Aang rolled his eyes, "Don't worry about Zuko. He got drunk at a party a couple years ago and made out with my girlfriend. I think it's okay if I make out with his girlfriend just this once."

"Whoa, Whoa," Sokka waved his arms in the air frantically, "So let me get this straight: You guys are going to kiss just to teach me a lesson to not question how close you are?"

"That would be correct," Aang agreed simply. "That is, if Katara is okay with it," he turned back to her with a smile, "So what do you say, Kat? You don't have to do this, but it sure would be fun to look at Sokka's reaction."

Katara laughed nervously, "Well, I…" she trailed off, wanting to kiss him, but not wanting to cheat on her boyfriend.

"Hey," he turned her to look at him, "You don't have to do this. This was just supposed to be something to bug Sokka is all. There's absolutely no one forcing you to do this, okay?"

The sweetness and concern in his voice drove Katara a little insane. She stared deeply into his eyes and made her decision. She grabbed him quickly by his shirt collar and yanked him to her lips, his yelp of surprise muffled as their lips connected. A spark shot through both of their bodies, making their brains feel like they were fried in the kiss. Aang couldn't help but kiss her back roughly. He had originally meant for it to be a quick make out, but before he knew it, his arms were wrapped around her waist as hers came around his neck. They moaned against each other's lips as Sokka's jaw dropped. They continued kissing as Katara fell back against the couch with Aang hovering over her, running his hands over her and hers were running over his abs. It would have gone farther if Sokka hadn't finally gotten over his shock, "Um, excuse me!"

They finally realized what was happening and pulled apart quickly with deep blushes on their faces. "Um, sorry Sokka," Aang smiled sheepishly, "I didn't mean for it to go that far." He felt his erection in his pants, "Uh… I'm going to go the bathroom real quick. Be right back!" he jumped up from the couch and ran before anyone else could say anything. He got into the bathroom and closed the door quickly and leaned against it, panting heavily. "What's going on with me?" he whispered worriedly to himself, "First, I notice how beautiful she is, and now I get lost in a kiss with her? She's my friend! Nothing more… right?" he asked himself frantically.

Sokka came and knocked on the bathroom door, "Uh, are you okay in there buddy? You kind of took off looking like you saw a ghost," he slightly teased him.

Aang rolled his eyes, "Ha-ha, very funny Sokka. I'm alright, I… just really had to go to the bathroom."

"Okay," Sokka said after a moment of silence, "If you're sure. The pizza's here, so whenever you're ready to eat, come on down."

"Alright, I will. Thanks, Sokka," Aang told him. He waited until he heard Sokka go back down the stairs and let out the breath he was secretly holding in, "Holy shit, what is going on with me?" Shaking his head, he decided to wait a couple minutes to let things cool off, especially in _that_ region. Meanwhile, Katara and Sokka were eating pizza in the living room.

"So," Sokka started with a grin, "You seemed to really enjoy yourself there. Care to share details?"

Katara glared at him, "Sokka, now isn't exactly the best time to be talking about this."

"Oh come on, Katara," Sokka laughed, "He's going to the bathroom right now. There's no way he can hear us, and if he comes back we'll stop."

She knew it wasn't a good idea, but she also knew that she wanted to see what he thought about the situation. "Fine," she grumbled while rolling her eyes. "I'll admit, I really liked it. Maybe a little too much," she admitted sheepishly.

"Yeah, I could tell," Sokka chuckled, "You know, with you pulling him onto you as you kissed him passionately and all. If I hadn't stopped you guys, you would have gone even farther than that."

She blushed heavily, "You think so?"

Sokka frowned, "Yeah, I do think so. He was running his hands all over you. Five more minutes, and he would have had your pants off. And that's not something I want to see," he shuddered.

"Well… do you think that means he loves me back?" she asked him shyly.

"I don't really know," he admitted, "I know he was just as lost in the kiss as you were, but that could be just because he's physically attracted to you, or it could be because he loves you."

She groaned loudly, "How am I ever supposed to figure this out if _you_ can't even tell if he feels the same?"

He gave her a reassuring pat on the back, "Hey, just because I don't know for sure doesn't mean that he doesn't. I can tell you that I think he does, but I don't want to say he does for sure in case he doesn't. Let's face it, sis. The only way you're going to know for sure is if you ask him."

Katara let out a long sigh. "Yeah, I guess you're right," she admitted grudgingly, "Have you ever had to do this before?"

"I mean…" Sokka started off nervously while fiddling with his fingers, "I had to ask Toph if she _liked_ me, but not _loved _me."

"Well, I'll have to take what I can get, I guess," Katara told him seriously, "So how did you go about doing that? Any ways to make it easier other than just blurting out, 'Hey, do you like me as more than a friend?'"

Sokka stroked his non-existent beard in thought, "Well, what I did is I asked around if people had heard anything about her liking me back, and they told me that they heard she did, so I went up and asked her out. People always tease you guys for being so close, so maybe that means everyone already thinks that you both have feelings for each other."

Katara nodded slowly in thought, "Yeah, you're probably right. Suki even told me that she thought that Aang and I had some secret love for each other. She was at least half-right, I guess." She paused when something hit her. "Suki's going to ask out Aang!"

"What was that?" Aang asked as he went down the stairs.

Katara chuckled nervously, "Um… nothing?" she asked more than answered him.

"Katara," he laughed and sat next to her, though with noticeably more distance between them than before, "Have you already forgotten I have super-hearing?"

Her head went down, "Fine, I said that Suki was going to ask you out…" she trailed off sadly while averting her eyes. She waited for him to say something like "Cool!" or "Awesome!", but he didn't say anything for a moment until he burst out laughing. "What's so funny?" she asked with her brows furrowed.

After a minute, he calmed down and looked up at her, "Oh… you're serious?" She nodded. "Okay, well what's the problem here?"

"There's not a problem," Katara lied through her teeth.

"Oh yeah?" he asked with a raised brow, "So why didn't you want me to know?" She tried to come up with an excuse, but couldn't for some reason. "It's okay Kat. I already know why."

She gulped loudly, "You do?"

"Of course," he told her, "You think it would be weird if both of your best friends dated each other, and what would happen if we dated and then broke up."

"Y-yeah, that's it," she let out a sigh of relief.

He smiled and put a hand on her hand, making her heartbeat skyrocket, "It's okay, Kat. You don't have to worry. She _is_ cute, but I only see her as a friend. Don't worry, there won't be any awkwardness other than me turning her down. I promise."

She knew that he was serious. When Aang made a promise, he always kept it. _Always_. He made it a point to not promise anything unless he was one hundred percent sure that he would be able to keep it. An idea popped into her mind, and against her better judgement, decided to go through with it. "I'm glad to hear that," she smiled, "Um… I gotta ask, do you think maybe… that you'd ever go out with one of your friends?"

His brows furrowed, "What do you mean?"

"Well, I guess I'm just wondering if you might ever think of a friend as more than a friend," she shrugged and looked away to cover up her blush.

He took a moment to think about it, and looked at her. His breath hitched in his throat as he looked at her sad features when he realized he would literally do anything to make her pout turn into a smile again. Jumping off a cliff, running naked in front of a large crowd, buying her whatever she wanted… he would do _anything_ for her. _Do I love her?_ he wondered, _As in, more than a friend?_ He shook these thoughts from his mind. They would have to be sorted out later. "Maybe…" he finally said.

She looked up at him, "Maybe?"

"I mean… if I loved a friend of mine as more than a friend, then yeah, I obviously would," he said slowly.

"Oh," she laughed, "I guess I should rephrase my question. I mean… do you think you would ever go out with a friend?"

Now it was his turn to ask a question. "Is this about Suki? I already told you, I'm not going to go out with her," he tried to reassure her.

She shook her head, "No, that's not why I asked."

His brows furrowed, "Why _did _you ask then?"

Katara blushed heavily, but before she could respond Sokka had finally decided that he had enough of watching the mess that was sure to be made as this conversation continued. "Alright, well this has been fun," he drawled sarcastically, "but I've got a game to go to, so you guys have fun." He gave them a wave and grabbed his keys quickly and ran out the door.

Aang turned back to Katara. "What was that about?" he asked with a laugh, "I don't think I've ever seen him leave a place as quickly as that."

"Oh, you know," Katara rolled her eyes in an attempt to hide her nervousness, "just Sokka being Sokka." He didn't appear to be satisfied with that answer, so she interrupted him before he could say anything, "Come on! I want to watch the movie and it's already six o'clock." She grabbed his hand, ignoring the tingling feeling she got from it and dragged him upstairs to her room. She forced him to lay down on her bed while she put the movie in.

"Kat, I didn't even get any pizza," he chuckled as he sat up on the bed, "Can I at least go get some and my drink?"

Katara smiled nervously, "Um, I'll get it for you!" He tried to protest, but she just shoved him back down on the bed. "I'll be right back!" She ran out of the room but came back, "What did you want to drink?"

"Pepsi, please," he asked politely. She nodded and ran down the stairs, leaving him to wonder why she seemed to be going crazy. Katara was wondering that herself, although she already knew the answer. It was slowly but surely starting to get to her that she didn't know how he felt for her, and she didn't know how much longer she would be able to keep her feelings a secret. Especially with him so close to her all night long. _Maybe I should just call off the slumber party_, she thought desperately as she grabbed a pepsi from her fridge. _No, I can't do that. Not only would it hurt his feelings, he would also wonder what was going on with me to cause me to cancel it halfway through the night. I'll just have to stick it out for the night. Who knows? Maybe I can be sneaky and get a confession out of him, _she thought with a smile. With that happy thought, she grabbed his pizza and soda and brought it back up to the room.

"Here you go," she said with a smile, "Two slices of pepperoni pizza and a pepsi." He gave her a "You're not funny" look, but she just laughed. "Of course I'm just kidding. Veggie Lovers special, as usual. You know that I wouldn't get meat on your side of the pizza."

He laughed and pulled her down next to him, making her blush at her close proximity to him as her head laid on his chest. "I know, I just thought you might have let Sokka order the pizza, cause there's no way he would ever order a pizza that had spinach on it."

She laughed nervously but didn't move, being completely comfortable with her head on his firm chest. "Yeah," she agreed, "That's why I never let him order the pizza. He would just get whatever he wanted, and I would be stuck picking off sardines from what I ate."

"Sardines?" he asked in a mix of surprise and disgust after swallowing down a piece, "Why does he want sardines on his pizza?"

"Beats me," she shrugged and looked up at him, "He's always been weird like that. Even my dad doesn't like sardines, and he has to eat them all of the time in the military."

He laughed and started the movie, "Well, I hope he's doing alright. He's a great guy, and he actually tells decent jokes, despite the bad rep of Dad jokes."

"Yeah," she smiled fondly, "He thinks you're a great guy, too. I guess you could say that even he thinks that we're more than friends," she let slip. She realized her mistake too late as his eyes widened.

"What do you mean 'Even he thinks that we're more than friends'?" he asked in surprise, "Do other people think we're more than friends?"

Katara looked away from him, "Um… apparently, from what I've heard at least. They say that since we're so close, there's no way we only think of each other as friends. Hilarious right?" she looked back to him to gauge his reaction. She was slightly gratified to see his blush, but was a little disheartened at his words.

"Yeah, we've always been just friends," he responded with doubt evident in his voice, "What do they expect, that we just have feelings for each other and that you're just going to leave Zuko for me? That is hilarious."

"Yeah…" Katara agreed sadly and dug her face into his chest so that he wouldn't see the tears that were threatening to fall down. Unfortunately for her, he had noticed the tears and turned her face to look up at him.

"Hey, what's wrong, Kat?" he questioned her seriously, "The movie's barely started, you shouldn't be crying already," he joked lightly, making her smile a little.

She wiped her eyes and shook her head, "It's nothing, I'm just being a big cry baby. Don't worry about it." He didn't look convinced, but she put on a fake smile and he let it drop, knowing whatever it was she didn't want to talk about it. The more she thought about it though, the more sad she became. She had really hoped that he would love her, even if she was with Zuko. The best relationships she had ever seen were ones between two best friends who had fallen in love with each other. Like her mother and father before her mother had died. They had been best friends since they were little, and as they grew up, they fell in love with each other and had a great relationship together. That's what she wanted too, but she knew that it wasn't going to happen. As that thought struck her, more tears flowed down her face, making Aang notice and brought her up to him.

"Hey, it's okay," he tried to comfort her by stroking her head while he placed a kiss on her head, "There hasn't even been anything sad in the movie yet. Why are you crying?" She didn't say anything. The tears just coming down and she dug her face deeper into his chest as she let it all out, wanting to feel the warmth he gave off and to inhale his scent. It would have to be enough for her to just be his friend, she decided.

She wiped her eyes and looked up at him. "Sorry, I guess I'm just a little emotional today. I miss my dad," she lied. He pulled her closer, which she didn't think was possible and rested his head on her head. "It's okay, Kat," he murmured softly in her ear, "I'm sure you do. I miss my dad, too. But at least you'll get to see him again soon." She nodded and snuggled against him, tears still streaming down her face. He couldn't stand to see her cry, it slowly killed him inside to see her in such pain. Then an idea popped into his head, something he hadn't done in a long time. He flipped her over and straddled her waist, making her stop crying and look up at him in confusion.

"Aang?" she asked in confusion, "What are you doing?"

"I'm doing… this!" he smiled evilly as he started tickling her mercilessly. Her laughter rang throughout the whole house as she tried to stop him.

"Aang! Stop! Please!" she tried begging through her laughter.

He pretended to think about it for a moment, allowing her just enough time to flip them over as she straddled him in return. "Now it's _my_ turn," she said mischievously.

"Um," he gulped and tried to think of a way to get out of this, "Is there any way I can talk you out of this?"

"Nope," she smirked, "Not this time. You had your fun, but now it's my turn." She tickled him everywhere, making him try to grab her hands to stop her as she moved from his stomach to his armpits to his feet, even to a sensitive spot on his neck.

Aang laughed until tears started coming out. "Okay, okay! I'm sorry! Can you please stop now?" he begged her with his big puppy dog eyes.

She didn't want to stop, but she could never resist those puppy dog eyes. "Do you know how lucky you are that you know how to use that trick?" she chuckled as she finally relented, allowing him to catch his breath, "If you didn't, I wouldn't have stopped for _at least_ another minute."

"Good thing I know how to then," he grinned. She noticed the twinkle in his eye and was about to ask what he was planning when he flipped her over and held her down by her wrists. "Can we agree to stop this so neither one of us pees our pants?" he asked with another grin. She let out a long fake sigh and nodded slowly. "Good, I'm glad." He looked into her eyes as she looked into his. Both of their breaths' hitching in their throats as they found they couldn't look away. _She's so beautiful. Maybe I do love her…_ he thought as he felt himself leaning into her. She leaned in as well and they met each other in an explosive kiss. The spark that had been there for their first one came back with a vengeance, making them deepen the kiss. Katara wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him closer when he realized what they were doing. He pulled away abruptly, panting heavily as Katara looked at him sadly.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done that," Katara tried to apologize, "I just-"

"Kat," he cut her off shaking his head wildly, trying to assure her that she didn't do anything wrong. "You didn't do anything wrong. I actually really enjoyed it," he admitted sheepishly.

She smiled widely, but frowned after a second. "So, why did you pull away then?" she asked fearfully, "Do you… not think of me in that way?"

"What? Of course I do! Even if it took me until just now to realize it, I wouldn't have kissed you back if I didn't," he told her sadly, "I can't do this because I don't want to hurt anyone. I can't do this to my best friend."

Her brows furrowed in confusion. "Um… I'm not exactly complaining here," she pointed out, "I was just as engaged in it as you were."

Aang nodded and tried to back up, but she kept her arms around his neck, locking him in place. "I'm talking about my other best friend. You know, your boyfriend Zuko?" She cursed as she thought about it. "I can't do that to him. He would be heartbroken."

"Aang," she cupped his cheek and forced him to look her in the eyes, "I know that you don't want to hurt him… I don't want to either, but I don't love him. I'm in love with you," she admitted bashfully.

It took him a minute to process that. His best friend was in love with him. The girl he had known since the third grade, the only person on Earth to know all of his secrets was in love with him. He would never have suspected this to happen. "I think I'm in love with you, too," he told her truthfully, making her smile widely, "but I still don't want to hurt him. I couldn't-" he was cut off with a finger to his lips.

**(A/N: There is a lemon here, so if you don't like lemons, go ahead and skip to the next A/N)**

"Shhh," she quieted him, "I know it won't be easy, but I love you, Aang, and I want to be with you." She kissed him again, and this time he didn't pull away. He deepened the kiss and wrapped his arms around her back to pull her closer. It had been a while since he had kissed a girl, but her moans of pleasure told him he hadn't lost touch of his skills since then. She pulled him against her so that he was chest to chest with her as he ran his fingers through her hair, grabbing onto it to pull her closer. Her tongue skimmed across his lips, begging for entrance to which he allowed. Their tongues fought for dominance as the kiss became more heated. Katara felt the heat settle between her legs as she felt his hardening erection grow against her thigh. She rubbed it softly, making him moan into her mouth. He reached around and grabbed her butt, giving it a gentle squeeze that caused her to yelp a little before going right back into the kiss. He laughed a little against her lips as she yelped in surprise, but went right back to getting as close to her as possible. When his erection had reached its peak, he started trailing kisses down from her cheek to her jaw, to her neck, and finally to her collar bone where he sucked a little, making her moan loudly. She grabbed his head and forced his lips back to hers as she started pulling up his shirt. He broke the kiss to throw it off while she threw hers off as well. He kissed her neck again as he snaked his hand around and started unhooking her bra. It became too much to bear how long it was taking and she helped him get it off as quickly as possible as he started for her jeans. She ran her hands over his rock hard chest as he finally got her pants halfway down and started rubbing her through her damp panties. "Wow," he laughed breathlessly, "You're really wet. How long has it been?"

She kissed his neck to hide her blush. "Uh, I'm actually a virgin," she admitted in embarrassment between kisses.

"No you're not," he said in disbelief as he continued rubbing her, "There's no way any of your boyfriends didn't try anything with you."

She took his hand and guided it into her underwear, making him rub her fiercely as she moaned loudly. "They did," she said through broken kisses, "But I didn't want to give it up unless it was to someone I loved, so I never agreed to it. That's actually why me and Jet broke up. That pig was just after my virginity." She gasped as he stuck a finger in her, making her moan at the incredible feeling of him inside her.

"Wow," he shook his head, "Well their loss is my gain." He was reminded again of Zuko. "Katara, as much as I want to, we shouldn't be doing this."

"I know, Aang," Katara whispered huskily in his ear, making him shiver, "But this would be happening eventually anyways. It was only a matter of time until we found our way to each other. He'll be fine. He's one of the most popular guys in school. There won't be any problems for him to find another girl." He tried to protest again but she just pulled him into another kiss and he stopped, too lost in their love to think clearly. After a few minutes of pumping in and out of her with his fingers, she decided that it wasn't enough anymore. "I want you inside me, Aang," she told him desperately. He nodded and they both tore off the rest of their clothes as quickly as they could. "I love you, Aang."

"I love you too, Kat," he kissed her again as positioned himself between her legs. She grabbed his length and slowly guided him into her, both moaning at the feeling of him being inside her. He went deeper until he finally reached her barrier. "Wow, you really weren't lying about being a virgin," he said in surprise. He turned serious again, "This is your last chance, Katara. It's not too late to go back, we don't have to do this. We don't have to break his heart."

Katara grabbed his face and brought it down to kiss him roughly. After a minute, she pulled back and looked him in the eye. "I want you, Aang. I love you and I want you to be my first. I want to be with you Aang." He knew he would feel even more guilty than he already felt later, but they had already gone this far, and he loved her a lot.

He nodded and pushed slowly through her barrier as she started tearing up from the pain. He kissed her tears as they came down. "Hey, it's okay," he tried to comfort her by kissing her fiercely on the lips to distract her from the pain. His length finally made it all the way through, and they both took a minute to get used to the other. "You're so tight, Katara," he gasped.

"And you're huge," she agreed with another gasp. After a few minutes, she kissed him to signal that she was ready. His thrusts started off slow and soft, making Katara moan softly as he gave her more time to get used to him inside of her. Katara pulled him to her for a rough kiss and he went faster, making her moan into his mouth as his thrusts picked up in speed. He kissed her neck as she held onto him for dear life, his throbbing need filling her up perfectly, as if he was the missing piece she needed. "Faster, Aang," she begged to which he complied. He drove into her quickly, making her moan louder as he started sucking on her nipples. She grabbed onto his head and dug her head into his chest, "Oh god, Aang. Ohhhh Gooood." Her moans only encouraged him to go faster, much to her delight. Katara's head swam with pleasure, not knowing how much longer she was going to last. His thrusts started slowing down but with power, causing her to squeal loudly. Not much longer, she felt her climax approaching rapidly. The pleasure mixed with knowing it was Aang that she was making love with brought her over the edge. "Aang!" she called out as she felt her first ever release.

He looked her in the eyes. "It kind of scares me how much I love hearing you call my name," he admitted with a ragged breath.

"Yeah," she agreed panting heavily, "I know what you mean. It kind of scares me how happy I am that you're my first, but I'm glad that you are. I love you so much, Aang."

"I love you too, Kat," he kissed her. She got up on her hands and knees. "Wow, kinky much?" he joked.

She grabbed his length and brought it towards her. "Shut up and make love to me," she demanded. He laughed but complied and pushed into her slowly, making her moan at how good he felt inside of her. She gasped as he went deeper than before. "Wow, you really _are_ big. I can feel you in my stomach," she groaned.

"Good. Whatever it takes to please the girl I love," he whispered huskily in her ear, making her sigh happily. He put his hands on her hips and started thrusting slowly into her as she gripped her sheets tightly.

"Oh, Aang," she moaned. His thrusts became faster and harder, making her dig her head into her pillows to keep from screaming. It didn't work however, because as he went faster, she let out a scream as he hit her sweet spot. He slowed down in worry.

"Are you okay, Kat?" he asked in concern.

Katara looked back and pulled him into a kiss. "I'm fine," she said desperately, "Just keep going." He nodded and went back to his previous pace. "Faster, Aang, faster!" she demanded breathlessly as he pounded into her. He complied and she felt her end coming again quickly.

His end was coming quickly as well. "Katara," he moaned, "I'm so close."

"Me too, Aang. Don't stop," she panted as he quickened his thrusts. He went as fast as he could, wanting his end badly as she cursed and said his name at every thrust. A few minutes later, she got her final release. "Aang!" She exploded all over him. Her climax sent him over the edge. "Oh Katara!" he gasped as he released himself inside her. They waited until he was finally done and fell back on the bed with her on his chest. "Wow," Aang said breathlessly.

**(A/N: End of lemon.)**

"You can say that again," Katara agreed with a laugh. She pulled him into a kiss which he returned with vigor. They pulled away after the need for air became to great. "I love you, Aang."

"I love you too, Kat," he started, "but what are we going to do about Zuko? You do realize that you have now technically cheated on him, right?"

She looked down with shame, "I know, but I couldn't help myself. It took me all this time to find out that I love you, and I found out that you love me, too. There was no way I could hold myself back, and I hate myself for it." She turned his head to look at her. "But the only thing I regret about what we did is that we did it while I am still dating him. I don't regret anything else."

He took her hand and kissed it. "Me neither," he agreed, "I can't believe it took me so long to figure out how I feel about you." He paused. "But we still need to figure out what to do about him. We've got to tell him about what happened."

"No, that would only break his heart more," she argued, "I'll break up with him tomorrow and then we can officially be together. I don't like having to keep it from him, but it would only hurt him more if he found out." Aang looked like he wanted to argue, but she kissed him into submission.

"Fine," he let out a long sigh, "but if this guilt becomes too much to bare, we need to tell him, okay?"

"Okay," she agreed and snuggled into him while he wrapped his arms around her. "I love you, Aang."

"I love you too, Kat," he kissed her on the head. They both slowly fell asleep as their hearts beat in perfect harmony together. What they didn't know was that Sokka and Toph had walked in the house as they made love.

* * *

Sokka stepped in and looked around. The house didn't look messy like it usually did when they had their little sleepovers. "Hey Toph," he turned to his girlfriend, "Can you tell what they're doing upstairs? The house isn't nearly as messy as it usually is on Friday nights."

"Sure thing, Snoozles," she fake saluted him. She stomped on the ground to get a good reading of her surroundings. Her eyes widened as she "saw" what they were doing. "Um, they're watching a movie," she lied nervously.

He didn't believe her for a second. "Toph, I know you can read vibrations, but there's no way you can tell if they're watching a movie right now. What are they really doing?" he asked suspiciously.

"Trust me, Sokka. You don't want to know," she told him shakily, catching him completely by surprise. Toph never got scared of anything, so she must have 'seen' something bad.

He looked at her even more suspiciously, "What do you mean, 'I don't-" but was cut off with a kiss.

She slowly pulled away, "You'll find out tomorrow. Let's go have some fun right now." He looked like he was about to argue, but she started rubbing him through his pants.

"Okay," he squeaked in agreement. She grinned and dragged him up to his room, thanking the spirits that they weren't making any more noise. Her well-tuned ears could hear them from all the way downstairs, and they were _not_ being quiet. She shut the door behind her, hoping to get that 'image' out of her head.


	3. Chapter 3: Awkward Admissions

Chapter 3: Awkward Admissions

**Hey guys, I just want to state real quick that I know it's out of character for Katara to cheat, but this is fanfiction and it's going to be a big part of the drama aspect of it, so I'm sorry if it upsets you guys, but it will be crucial to the story and how everything comes to a head. **

**Responses to Reviews: **

**Lula: Glad that you like it so far. I try my very best to make them appear as close to their actual characters as possible, so I'm glad that you think that they're pretty close to them. You're right, I'll work on putting more description into their appearances. As for their ages: Aang, Katara, Toph: 17 and in junior year. Sokka, Suki, and Zuko: 18 and in senior year. If you've read this far, you'll be able to tell that there was a lemon and yes, Aang does have tattoos as you'll see in this chapter. Thanks for reading and the review! **

**AnonymousKataang: Yeah it does seem that way, but as I write more stories I will be mixing it up instead of it just being Zuko who is involved. I'm not trying to rub it in anyone's face or anything, because if I was I would have Aang taunt Zuko or something along those lines and I don't like stirring up animosity with other people. And I can promise that there are absolutely no lines from any other fics in this story or at least none that are intentional because I don't want to have to put up another cite page for this story as well and there will not be any more and yes, this will be a short story. Probably between 6-7 chapters. Thanks for reading and the review!**

**Ashley Barabosa: Thanks. I'm glad that I write similarly to him, that means my writing's not horrible as I often feel like it is. Thanks for reading and the review!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender. **

* * *

Katara woke slowly to the sound of birds chirping outside of her bedroom window. The same way she woke up pretty much every weekend, but something was different this time. There was a chill that she usually didn't feel in the morning. Almost as if… she didn't have any clothes on. Her eyes shot open as the memories of the night before came crashing back, reminding her of how she and Aang had kissed and made love while confessing their feelings to each other. She smiled softly, happy to finally know that he felt the same. Even if it had only taken less than a day to find out, the stress and worry of trying to find out felt as if it was really five years. She felt his strong arms wrap around her and sighed happily. If someone had told Katara two weeks ago she would be in bed with Aang, she would have agreed, but not in this way. Though as she thought about it, it wasn't _too_ different than what she was used to after their usual Friday night sleepovers. They would both usually wake up with her in his arms like they were now, another sign of their unknown love for each other, she supposed, but they obviously would still have clothes on and wouldn't feel so… _intimate_. Not to mention that her loins definitely wouldn't be aching like they were. She had never felt so… free as when Aang was with her. He made her feel as if she could do anything and that he would always be there to support her for whatever she would set her mind to. There was no better feeling in the world than knowing that the one you love would always be there for you, and she was grateful to know that that was her reality. "Good morning, Kat," Aang yawned as he slowly woke up.

She smiled and turned around in his arms to face him, "Good morning, Aang." Grabbing his face, she pulled him into a kiss which he returned vigorously, still high off of the new discovery of his love for her. After a couple of minutes, she pulled away and let out a shaky breath, "You are a _much_ better kisser than Zuko." He laughed a little, but stopped when he was reminded of how he had wronged his best friend. Katara frowned a little, "What's wrong?"

"It's just that… I'm supposed to be Zuko's best friend, and yet here I am," he sighed guiltily, "In bed with his girlfriend after a night of lovemaking while he was doing God knows what. I never wanted to betray any of my friends, let alone my best friend, and now I don't even know how I can look him in the eye without feeling the guilt of taking you away from him and stabbing him in the back."

"Shhh" she put a finger on his lips, "You didn't take me away from him. When I figured out that I loved you, I made the decision that if you felt the same, that I would be with you as long as you wanted to be with me. You can't steal someone away who was already planning on leaving, so it's not like you talked me into it. In fact if I remember correctly, you tried to convince me several times last night to not hurt him and I was the one who had to convince you to kiss me back. If there's anyone to blame here, it's me."

Aang didn't say anything for a moment. "That may be, Katara, but that doesn't mean I'm innocent in this either," he argued, "I knew what I was doing and I went through with it anyway. We could have gone about this in a better way. There was no rush to make love, consequently making you a cheater in the process. Not only have I betrayed my guy best friend, I've turned my girl best friend into a cheater." He shook his head at himself, "I'm a monster."

"Aang." He didn't look at her. She grabbed his face and forced him to look at her, "Aang, this isn't your fault. I know that you feel horrible about betraying your best friend; I feel horrible that I betrayed him, too, but this is for the best. Zuko and I wouldn't have worked out anyways, even if I didn't realize it until now. He and I don't have a lot in common and we often fought over stupid things all of the time, so it's just speeding up what was going to happen anyways. Like I said last night, the only thing I regret about what we did last night is that we did it while I'm still technically dating him. I was so excited that you loved me back that I didn't really think of what that would do to him, but as long as we don't tell him, then he won't be hurt more than he needs to be," she finished while tracing the arrow on his arm with her finger.

"Katara, do you really want to let him go his whole life without knowing the truth?" Aang asked seriously, "I know it would hurt him, but if he ever somehow found out on his own, then it would only hurt him more. Not to mention that he is a man with anger issues. God knows what he would do if he found out on his own. He just might try to kill me."

Katara pulled him into another kiss. "I know, Aang, but we'll just have to make sure he doesn't find out. It's the only way this will end without someone getting seriously hurt. He's already going to be super mad and probably challenge you to a fight or something. I know he deserves to know the truth, but it would only hurt him more and would likely make him go berserk. No one really needs that right now, least of all him."

"But-" he tried to argue.

"The only butt I want to see right now is yours," she joked, making him laugh a little. "I know that it's wrong and that we should tell him, but if he never finds out, then he'll never get hurt more than is really necessary. Let's just take this one step at a time for now and we'll see how things go."

"Okay," he sighed. "We won't tell him. But I should give you fair warning that if something eats at me enough, I might just randomly blurt it out," he warned her.

She smiled and stroked his cheek, "Okay, then we'll deal with whatever comes after that. As long as that means I get to be with you, then I'll take it." She grabbed him by his hair and pulled him into another kiss, feeling him harden against her thigh. "Is there any chance we can have a quickie?" she muttered hopefully against his lips.

"No," he murmured back, "We shouldn't do anything else until it's officially over between you guys, even if I really want to."

She let out a disappointed sigh and stood up, bending over to grab her underwear. "I gotta say, I love the view," he whistled.

"Oh shut up," she laughed, "Come on, we should go out and get some breakfast before we figure out what we need to do." He nodded and got dressed quickly. As they were walking out, he grabbed her hand and brought her lips to his, caressing her face softly. She sighed happily and kissed him back before slowly pulling away.

"Sorry," he apologized breathlessly, "I just had to do that. I still can't believe it took me so long to see how I feel about you."

Katara smiled and took his hand. "Yeah, me neither," she agreed, "but at least we know now. Now come on, I'm really hungry for some reason." He laughed and they both went downstairs to find Sokka and Toph there eating cereal.

"So," Sokka started with a mouth full of cereal, "What exactly did you guys do last night that got Toph so freaked out? She _never_ gets freaked out."

"Um…" Aang looked to Katara, wanting to know how he should proceed.

"Well, I guess since it's going to come out anyways I might as well say it," Toph groaned, "I 'saw' them having sex last night."

Sokka spit out the cereal he was eating all over the table. "What?!" he shouted angrily.

"Sokka, calm down!" Katara complained, "You didn't think I was going to stay a virgin forever did you?"

"No," he admitted reluctantly, "but I thought it would be longer than seventeen years of your life! I was hoping it wouldn't happen until you were at least in college!"

Aang and Katara both took a seat at the table. "I know Sokka, but with all of the tension that's been building up between Aang and I, it was only a matter of time until it happened," Katara told him.

"Yeah I know," Sokka grumbled, but remembered something and gasped. "But you're still technically dating Zuko! You cheated on him!"

"I know, Sokka. I'm not proud of it, but it happened. I wish it didn't happen while I'm still technically dating him, but it's too late now," Katara said shamefully.

Toph interrupted, "Yeah yeah, she cheated, can we get to the real topic on hand?" Everyone's eyes were on her. "I didn't know you were into lesbian sex Katara," she joked. Everyone glared at her. "Bad timing?" she asked sheepishly.

"Yeah," Sokka agreed with a roll of his eyes, "_Very_ bad timing." He turned his attention back to Katara and Aang. "What are you guys going to do? You have to tell him."

Aang gave Katara an _I told you so_ look. Katara sighed, "We can't, Sokka. He's already going to be hurt enough when I break up with him. Telling him about it would only make it worse."

"Wouldn't it hurt him more if he found out about it on his own?" Sokka countered, "At least by telling him now, you'll save him some pain."

"If we don't tell him at all and he never finds out, then he won't have any pain from it at all," Katara pointed out, "I don't want him to have to suffer for something any more than he already is going to. Especially when he didn't do anything to cause it."

Aang put up his hand to stop them both. "Look guys, as much as I want to tell him, Katara does have a point. We're the only ones who know about this, so if no one says anything, then he'll only get hurt from being dumped. Not to mention that he has anger issues and just might burn the school or my house down if he found out," he reasoned.

Sokka didn't want to admit it, but Aang was right. He had first hand witnessed Zuko's temper in action, having seen him with Katara several times where they were in a fight. Sometimes if Katara was lucky, he would just yell. If she was _unlucky_, then he would break something and storm out. He had even somehow managed to break Sokka's Ipod Touch that Katara had been borrowing, much to Sokka's displeasure. "As much as I don't want to admit it… you guys are right," he finally caved, catching Aang and Katara by surprise. "I've seen how he gets when he's angry. The dick even broke my Ipod touch. If he did something like that over something as stupid as not being able to go to a movie he wanted to see, then I can only imagine what he would do if he found out about this. As much as I know it's not a good idea, to try to keep people- namely Aang- out of the hospital we should probably keep this a secret."

"So we all agree to keep that part a secret?" Katara asked them all. Everyone nodded in agreement. "Good. I don't like keeping it from him, but it would only make it worse by telling him." She turned to Aang. "Now that that's out of the way, we need to set up a meet up to break the news to him."

He nodded slowly, "Yeah, I guess you're right. This isn't going to be easy for me, Kat. He's my best friend, and now I have to go up to him and say that I took his girlfriend."

She took his hand and squeezed it, "I know, Aang, but what's done is done. And there's no way I'm going back to him as long as you want to be with me." He smiled a little and gave her a kiss on the lips, much to Toph and Sokka's disliking.

"Oogies!" Sokka shuddered in disgust.

Katara glared at him. "Really, Sokka?" she deadpanned, "Oogies?"

Aang looked at her in confusion, "What are 'Oogies'?"

She rolled her eyes at her childish brother. "It's what he says whenever he sees me kiss a boy," she explained, "He's done that since my first date. And despite almost being out of highschool, continues to do it to this day, and likely will for the rest of his life."

"You got that right," Sokka snorted, "Unless you stop kissing guys, then that's not going to stop."

"Sorry Sokka," Katara shrugged unapologetically, "The only way I'm not kissing guys anymore is if Aang dies somehow."

Aang eyebrows shot up in surprise. "What? You wouldn't try to date if I ever died?" he asked curiously.

She smiled at him, "Of course not. I might have only figured it out yesterday, but I know you're the One for me, Aang. I would never want to be with anyone else, even if that meant being alone for the rest of my life." He smiled widely and kissed her passionately.

"Ugh, you two get a room," Toph complained. "Oh wait, you already did last night," she joked. Everyone glared at her again. "Yeesh, tough crowd this morning."

"Sorry Toph, but it's not exactly a joking kind of day," Katara told her. She took out her phone and texted Zuko. After a minute, she hit send and looked at Aang. "Okay, we're going to meet him at the park and talk to him where there will be lots of witnesses."

Sokka was impressed. "I gotta hand it to you, sis. That's actually really smart of you. You're definitely going to need witnesses in case he loses it."

"Thanks Sokka," Katara laughed and turned to Aang, "Alright, let's grab something to eat real quick and we'll get going." He nodded and they both wolfed down two bowls of cereal, making Sokka and Toph disgusted from knowing why they were so hungry and walked out, leaving the couple alone.

Sokka looked at her, "It should be interesting to see how this goes. I guess we'll know what happened once the hospital calls," he joked.

"Yeah," Toph smirked, "Or we'll find out when Zuko gets arrested for arson." They both laughed and sat there in a comfortable silence. "Want to go have sex?" Toph asked bluntly.

"Duh," Sokka responded and dragged her upstairs

* * *

Zuko walked up to the park he was told to go to and sat down on a bench. Katara apparently had something she had to tell him. _Maybe she's finally fallen in love with me_, he thought excitedly. Doubt crept into his mind. _Or… maybe she wants to break up with me. Why would she invite me to a park if she wanted to tell me that she loved me? _He started to worry, but decided that he would have to just wait and see what she had to say. Looking around the park, he noticed a happy couple sitting on a bench and feeding bread to birds as they laughed and talked. _That could be me and Katara one day… that is if she doesn't break up with me. Why would she though? We haven't had a fight in…_ he took a moment to think about it, _Two weeks!_ He frowned a little. _Okay, so that's not really a good thing that we fight that much, but I'm willing to work on it if she is. Even when I broke her Ipod Touch, she didn't break up with me, so why would she now?_ Still, he couldn't push out the doubt and fear that she was going to end things with him. "Zuko!" He snapped out of his thoughts to see Katara walking over to him with… Aang?

"Hi honey," Zuko put on a smile and tried to lean into her as she sat down on the bench.

She pulled away before he could plant a kiss on her lips. "Um, I've got something I need to tell you," she said awkwardly.

"Oh?" he raised an eyebrow. "What's up Tara? Is everything alright?" He tried his best to hide the fear from his voice, but some of it managed to seep through, much to his chagrin.

Katara sighed and looked down. "Look Zuko, this isn't easy to say, but... " she took Aang's hand in her hand and looked up at him, "I know that I said that Aang was only a friend, but I found out recently that I… love him. As in more than a friend..."

Zuko felt his heart snap. "Oh…" he trailed off sadly.

"I'm sorry, Zuko," she smiled sadly, "You're a great guy and all, but even if it took me until yesterday to figure it out, my love for Aang is so strong that I can't be without him. I'm really sorry to have to do this to you, but I need to be with him. But don't worry, I'm sure that you'll be able to find someone else very quickly and they'll actually be good for you."

He looked up at her with a tear running down his face, "But you're good for me, Katara…"

She shook her head, "Zuko, neither of us are good for each other. We both butt heads with each other all of the time, we both have bad tempers and don't have a lot in common. If we had ended up getting married, I can almost guarantee that we would have gotten divorced. I'm sorry Zuko, but this is for the best. For all of us."

Zuko looked at Aang angrily. "Well? Anything you might want to add since you're stealing my girlfriend from me, you backstabber?"

Aang looked at him sadly, "Zuko, I'm not stealing her, or at least I'm not on purpose. I just found out last night that I have feelings for her. I even tried talking her out of it because I didn't want to hurt you and neither did she, but we love each other and want to be together. I'm so sorry that it had to be this way, but I would never intentionally betray you, Zuko."

"Oh, you would never intentionally betray me, huh?" Zuko seethed, "Then explain to me how you and Katara found out that you love each other."

Katara cut in before Aang could say anything, "Zuko, I found out yesterday after school. Pretty much from when I got a detention to when Aang came over, I had been finally seeing little signs here and there that made me question if Aang was really just a friend or not. Then Sokka asked me why I had been putting make-up on and forced me to admit that I love him."

"And as for me," Aang cut back in, "I had no clue until I took a good look at Katara and realized how beautiful she was while I was at her house last night. Then I tried to deny it and just continue on with my day but as we were watching a movie, and Katara started crying, I tickled her to make her laugh and ended up on top of her. It took me staring into her eyes and the kiss that happened after for me to realize it." He intentionally left out the part of making out on the couch and what happened after their kiss. "Look Zuko, I am so sorry. I know you must hate me, and I don't blame you, but I'm not your enemy. I never intended to take Katara from you, and I'm sorry that you have to go through this, but if there's anything I can do-"

"You can give me my girlfriend back," Zuko growled angrily.

Katara shook her head, "Zuko, don't I have a say in my love life? I'm not some prize that you feel like was stolen from you, I'm an actual human being."

"Maybe not, but you were mine!" Zuko yelled, "Before _he_ took you away from me!"

"He didn't take me away from you!" Katara yelled back, "When I found out I had feelings for him, I knew that I wanted to be with him, so if there's anyone to blame here, it's me. So go ahead. Take it all out on me." Zuko raised a fist to strike her, but Aang stepped in and grabbed it.

"What the hell, Zuko?!" Aang shouted angrily, "You think you can just punch a girl because she broke up with you? I'm sorry that you're so heartbroken that you feel the need to strike her, but that's no excuse for trying to hurt her!"

Zuko glared at him, "Oh, so now you get to be the judge? At least _I_ wouldn't try to steal your girlfriend!"

"Yes you would!" Aang exclaimed incredulously, "In fact, you have! You stole my girlfriend in ninth grade at that party, remember?" Katara gasped and Zuko got more mad.

"That was a drunken mistake!" he shot back.

Aang looked at him in disbelief. "Oh yeah?" he challenged, "If it was a drunken mistake, then why did you end up actually dating her _after _the party? Care to defend that?" He took a deep breath. "Look Zuko, me and you are in the same boat, so how about we just call it even and be done with this?" he tried to diffuse the situation.

"This is different!" Zuko argued, "I love her! And now you waltz right in and take her from me?"

Katara finally spoke up, "Zuko, it doesn't matter if you love me or not. It's _not _different. You shouldn't have taken Aang's girlfriend from him, whether he only liked her or if he had loved her." She turned to Aang. "How did he even manage to steal a girl from you in the first place? You're the most popular guy in school."

He laughed a little, "Because he's rich. He uses his large amounts of money to get into girls pants since he's small downstairs if you know what I mean," he winked, making Katara giggle.

"Shut up, Aang!" Zuko roared. "Enough of this. I challenge you to an Agni Kai for Katara's hand."

Katara rolled her eyes. "Really Zuko?" she drawled, "We're back to the _I'm a prize _thinking?" Zuko didn't respond. She shook her head at him and grabbed Aang's hand. "There will be no fight, there will be no _us_ ever again, and you will leave us both alone about this from now on. We still want to be your friend Zuko, but you're not thinking clearly right now. I'm sorry that it had to end this way, but Aang and I getting together was inevitable."

Zuko glared at her. "The only reason it was inevitable was because my supposed _best friend_ was bound to take you away from me."

"You know what Zuko?" Aang finally had it, "I'm done with this stupid conversation. I'm sorry that things had to be this way, but I love her very much and she loves me. She might like you, but she doesn't love you. As long as she wants to be with me, given that she has the free-will choice as that she's _not_ a prize but a person, then I'll be with her as long as she'll have me," he finished, earning a kiss on the cheek from Katara.

Katara looked back at Zuko, "Really Zuko, I am very sorry and I still want to be friends, but I'm not some object that you can fight for. At least Aang recognizes that, which you apparently don't."

Zuko looked angrily at her, then shot Aang a death glare and stormed off, setting fire to a tree as he walked to his car. Aang sighed and bent some air to put out the fire, "Well, that went about as well as I expected it to." He turned to Katara, "But at least now you're officially mine," he smiled.

She smiled back, "Yeah, I'm pretty happy about that, too." She pulled him into a kiss, making him smile against her lips. After a couple minutes, they pulled apart and stared into each other's eyes. "Do you maybe want to go do something now?" Katara asked a little desperately. He nodded and they ran off to her car to go home.

* * *

Zuko drove home quickly and ran up to his room, ignoring his Uncle Iroh's question of how his day was going. He grabbed a bottle of whiskey that he kept under his bed for situations like this and chugged it down, hoping to forget about the pain. "If only Aang hadn't taken her away from me, then she would still be mine," he muttered to himself. "My supposed best friend took my girlfriend from me." He got up and started pacing the room while taking sips of his whiskey. "It doesn't matter if I took his girlfriend from two years ago, that's in the past," he tried to excuse himself, "And I did him a favor by doing it before he could get his heart broken by another guy who would take her away anyways. Yeah…" His phone started ringing and he saw that it was his childhood best friend Suki. _Should I answer it?_ he wondered. Against his better judgement, he answered it and grumbled, "What do you want Suki?" as he took another sip of his whiskey.

"Well, hello to you Zuko," she drawled sarcastically, "Have you seen Aang lately? I've tried all of his usual spots, but he's not anywhere that I've seen."

He became confused, "Why don't you just try texting him?" Then another thought popped in his mind. "Why do you need to talk to him?"

"Oh, well I was just going to ask him out," Suki said excitedly, "I've liked him for a while now and I was hoping he might want to try 'us' out. And as for the texting part, I did try texting him, but he hasn't responded at all, so I thought he might be busy doing something."

Zuko laughed bitterly, "Yeah, he's busy doing something alright. Busy doing my now ex-girlfriend." He took another swig.

Suki was silent for a moment. "What do you mean 'Busy doing my now ex-girlfriend'?" She gasped when realization hit her, "You mean…"

"Yup," he responded tiredly, "They apparently found out yesterday that they're in love with each other and she broke up with me today. Now I'm sure he's going to be busy doing her all day long."

"How dare she?!" Zuko could almost hear her teeth grinding, "One moment she tells me that it's okay if I ask him out and that they're just friends, and the next she leaves you for him?"

Zuko shook his head. "Sorry for you Suks, but there's not really much either of us can do about it. Even if I might really want to," he sighed sadly.

"I'm gonna go find her," Suki growled, "and give her a piece of my mind." She hung up and called up Toph.

"Hello?" Toph answered quietly.

"Hey Toph, do you have any idea where Katara is?" Suki asked quickly.

Toph didn't speak for a moment, "Um yeah, she's here at Sokka's house. Why? Did you need me to tell her something?"

"No," Suki responded, "I just need to talk to her. Do me a favor and tell her that I'm on my way to talk to her. Okay?"

"Sure thing, Fan Girl," Toph grumbled, "I'll make sure she's under house arrest until you get here."

Suki smiled. At least she had one friend who would help her out. "Thanks Toph, I appreciate it."

"No problem," she chuckled, "See you when you get here, Fan Girl." Suki hung up and got angry again. "Oh, Katara is _so _going to get a piece of my mind alright…"


	4. Chapter 4: Friends or Enemies?

Chapter 4: Friends or Enemies?

**Responses to Reviews: **

**AnonymousKataang: Yeah, it's a bit dramatic which is what I was going for since it's a drama… There is some Avatar in this story as you'll see. When I do Modern AU's, I tend to try to keep it modern and will include basic stuff from Avatar like bending but otherwise try to keep it modern. Thanks for reading and the review! **

**Essa8b3: Thanks, I'm glad you think it's decent so far. You'll have to find out if there's a Zuki or not. Thanks for reading and the review! **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender. **

* * *

Suki was furious as she drove over to Sokka's house. Her supposed best friend, who she had confided in and told about her crush on Aang, all of a sudden decided that she was in love with him and promptly took him away from her before she even got a chance to ask him out. Not to mention how much pain she put her childhood best friend in by dumping him and leaving him for Aang. They needed to have a serious talk. Suki wasn't one to start fights, especially not with her closest friend, but she was really hoping that she would be able to get a chance to ask Aang out and see where it went, but now it wouldn't happen unless he and Katara broke up. And considering that she had already known that they were in love, she knew that wasn't going to happen. She wanted to be happy for her friend, but she wanted to be happy for her while she had a fair chance to see if she and Aang could work out. _If I hadn't mentioned my suspicion of them being in love with each other, maybe none of this would ever have happened,_ she thought angrily as she pulled into Sokka's driveway. Working herself up to get ready for a verbal fight, she stepped out of her car and stormed her way to the front door.

_Meanwhile…_

Sokka walked by the hallway as he heard the disgusting sounds of his little sister and his best friend doing it. He wanted badly to keep walking, but they were being so loud, he couldn't think straight. "Hey!" he pounded on Katara's door, "If you guys are going to do this, you have to be quiet about it!"

"Shut up, Sokka! I have to hear you and Toph all of the time, so I don't want to hear it!" Katara yelled back. He wanted to argue with her, but her moans started filling up the hallway again and he ran downstairs to get away before it could get any worse. The sound of his sister moaning replaying in his mind made him shudder. _Guess I'm gonna have to get used to it,_ he thought with a sigh. A loud knock on the door sounded and he wondered who it could be. Making his way to the door, he saw a person that looked familiar through the window that he couldn't fully recognize because the window was distorted. Opening up the door, he was surprised to see Suki standing there with her arms crossed while tapping her foot on the ground.

"Hey Suki," he greeted her, "Did you need something?"

Suki nodded. "Yeah, I need to talk to your sister. She's got some explaining to do," she told him angrily.

He looked at her in confusion. "Um, okay?" he shrugged, "Well, she's… _busy_ right now, so if you want to come in and wait a few minutes, I'll go see if she's finished yet." She nodded without another word and moved to sit down on his couch, waiting patiently for her friend to come down. Sokka shook his head. "Crazy girls," he muttered to himself. Dreading what he had to do, he walked back up the stairs to hear his worst nightmare: His sister calling out his best friend's name. "Aang!" erupted from her door as he got there, making him feel like he was going to puke. He gave them a moment to settle down and knocked on the door. "Katara! Suki's here to see you, so you guys finish as quick as you can and get down there!"

"Alright Sokka, I'll be down there in a few minutes!" she groaned back, knowing full well why Suki was there.

Aang turned to her in bed as they both attempted to catch their breaths. "What does Suki want?" he asked curiously.

Katara frowned a little. "She's mad at me because I found out that I'm in love with you and took you before she could get a chance to ask you out," she explained breathlessly.

"Oh," Aang muttered, "Well that should be interesting." He cupped her cheek with his hand, "Do you want me to go down with you?"

She thought about it for a moment. Of course she would like to bring Aang, but if she did, that might make Suki even more mad. Not to mention that it would make the situation even more awkward. She smiled at him and squeezed his hand, "No, I'm good Sweetie. The situation would only be made worse if you were involved."

"Okay, if you think that's best," he kissed her softly, making her sigh happily against his lips. "Just let me know if you need me in case something comes up. I feel bad about this, but I only see her as a friend anyway, so it's not like it would be much different either way."

"Yeah, you're right," she agreed, "Depending on how things go, I might need you to come down and tell her that if it goes in that direction. Will you be ready in case I do need you?"

"Of course," he assured her and stroked her face with his hand slowly, "I'm here for you whenever and wherever you need me. Always and forever."

Tears trickled down from her eyes as she looked at him lovingly. "What did I ever do to deserve you?" she whispered.

He shrugged with a sly smile. "Oh, you didn't do anything to deserve me," he joked, making her slap him playfully. "I'm just kidding Kat," he chuckled and pulled her closer to him, digging his face into her hair, "You're an amazing person and my best friend in the whole world. I'm the one who doesn't deserve to be with you. I never imagined I would be able to get as amazing of a girl as you in my whole life, so if there's anyone who should be asking that question, it's me."

Katara couldn't help but be amazed at how sincere and honest Aang was. He wasn't proud and brash, he was humble and level headed. Just being near him was like being near a living saint, so full of love and joy for life. And he was hers. That would amaze her everyday for the rest of her life. She kissed him passionately, wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling him as close to her as possible. He laughed against her lips but kissed her back until the need for air became too great. They slowly pulled apart and smiled at each other. "Not that I'm complaining or anything, but what was that for?" Aang laughed breathlessly.

"For being the most amazing man in the world," she kissed his cheek, "And more importantly, for willingly choosing to be mine." He grinned and hugged her tightly, ignoring his re hardening erection as her folds pressed up against his shaft. "Sorry Sweetie," she chuckled and got out of bed to get dressed, "I've got to take care of this and then we can go another round. I promise."

"Sounds good to me," Aang laid back against her pillows with his arms behind his head, "Don't be afraid to call me down if you need me, Kat. I'll be listening to make sure everything goes well." She nodded and blew him a kiss before she walked out the door. Taking a deep breath, she walked down the stairs and put on a happy face.

"Suki!" she greeted her with a big smile, "How's it going?"

"How's it going, huh?" Suki rolled her eyes, "You know exactly how it's going, Katara. How are you and Aang?" she sneered.

Katara frowned, "Look Suki, I-"

"Save it!" Suki growled, "What kind of best friend are you? I tell you that I like him and not even a day later you guys are going out and are in love with each other? What the hell, Katara!"

She didn't respond for a moment. "I know Suki, I wasn't planning for it to happen, but a lot of stuff happened yesterday that made me start to realize that I do love him and then Sokka told me that he knew that I had been in love with him since the third grade. I was surprised at first, but the more I thought about it, the more it all made sense." She paused. "I'm so sorry that I told you that you could ask him out and took him before you could even try, but even though I didn't know it, I am madly in love with him and want to be with him."

Suki took a deep breath and looked down at her feet, "I understand, Katara, but you promised me that it was okay to ask him out. And now I won't ever be able to unless you guys break up."

"Um, about that," Katara started nervously, "I actually asked him about it, and he said that though he thinks you're cute, he only thinks of you as a friend."

Suki frowned and looked up at her. "You're lying. I totally saw him check me out the other day. He had to have at least liked me," she argued.

"I'm sorry, Suki, I'm just telling you what he told me," Katara shrugged, "Do you want me to get him down here for proof?" Suki didn't say anything for a moment, then slowly nodded. Katara took out her phone and quickly texted him. A few minutes later, a fully dressed Aang came down the stairs with a smile on his face.

"Hey Suki," he greeted her with a wave, and sat down next to Katara, "So, what did you need, Kat?"

Katara took his hand in hers as Suki growled in her throat, making Katara sigh a little. "Suki wants proof that you only think of her as a friend. She doesn't believe that you told me that," she explained.

Aang rubbed his neck with a nervous chuckle, "Oh, that. Right." He looked sadly at Suki. "Yeah, I'm sorry Suki. Don't get me wrong, you're an amazing girl, but I always just thought of you as a friend."

Suki didn't say anything for several moments, still in slight denial that he didn't think of her as more than friends. "Then why were you checking me out yesterday?" she asked suspiciously.

"Uh," he gulped, "I was actually checking out your friend who just happened to be there while you were there," he admitted with a blush.

"Who was this friend, Aang?" Katara tried to hide her jealousy but failed miserably.

He kissed her on the cheek, "Hey, that was yesterday before I knew that I loved you. You're the only girl I see now, Kat, I promise."

She didn't look so sure, but he gave her a reassuring smile and she gave in. "Okay, if you say so." She turned her attention back to Suki, "Look Suki, I am very sorry that I got to him before you could even get a chance, but this has been building up between us for years, so when I found out how I felt about him, I knew that I had to take a shot. I know that you're very angry with me right now, and I don't blame you, but could you please forgive me?"

Suki looked her dead in the eyes for what felt like forever until she finally let out a long sigh. "Okay, Kat," she nodded, "I forgive you."

"Thank you, Suki," Katara smiled and hugged her, "I'm glad that we don't have to go through some big horrible fight over this. I don't want to fight with my best friend."

"Me neither," she agreed and laid back on the couch, "So, how exactly did it happen?"

Katara raised an eyebrow, "How did what happen?"

Suki gave her a "Duh" look. "How did you find out that Aang felt the same? I'm sure there's some kind of cheesy 'He leaned in and I leaned in and we kissed' story involved. Even if I'm not happy about not getting a chance with him, I still want to know the details."

Aang and Katara looked at each other, wondering how much they should say. "Well," Katara started nervously, "it kind of started when Aang had first gotten here. Sokka was being annoying as usual, and Aang here wanted to annoy him back by making out with me."

"Wow," Suki laughed, "That's quite a proposal for two people who are just friends." She turned to Aang. "You suggested making out with her to bug Sokka and you had no idea that you were in love with her?" she asked a little incredulously.

Aang shrugged, "I knew that I found her attractive and I was starting to doubt if we really were just friends or not, but I didn't want to think about it at the time. Plus I know the best way to bug Sokka is to get involved with his sister, so I thought that would be the perfect way to get him to be quiet."

"Anyways," Katara continued, "we ended up kissing and I think it's safe to say that we both enjoyed it. A lot." She blushed a little and looked to him for reassurance.

"Kat," he laughed and pulled her to him, resting his head on top of hers. "If I didn't enjoy it, we wouldn't be where we are now. Trust me, I enjoyed it just as much as you did, if not more."

Katara grinned and sighed contentedly. Suki gagged a little but motioned for them to continue. "So after that, Aang kind of ran away quickly-" she cut herself off and looked up at him. "Why _did_ you run away?" she asked curiously.

He laughed nervously, "Well, there were a couple of reasons. The first one was that I was starting to freak out when I realized just how much I was enjoying that kiss because I still thought that we were just friends. The other reason was because I was having a… situation that I didn't want anyone to see." They both looked confused but laughed as the realization finally hit them.

"Aw, Sweetie," Katara kissed him on the cheek. "Did I really do that to you?"

"What can I say?" he chuckled. "You had already come down looking amazing and then all of a sudden I'm kissing you and I was pressed right up against you. There's no way that it wasn't going to happen, but I didn't want anybody to know, especially since I wasn't sure what was going on with me."

Suki groaned. "Okay you two, continue on with the story before I puke. I don't need to hear anymore about you guys turning each other on, okay?"

"Sorry Suki," Katara apologized. "So then after a little bit, we went back up to my room and watched a movie. Somehow I let slip that people thought that there was something between us, and got upset when Mr. Liar over here," she poked Aang, "said that we were just friends."

Aang defended himself. "Hey, to be completely fair, I didn't know at the time that I was in love with you. I was still trying to sort through my emotions to figure out what was making me feel like I was going crazy."

"Yeah, yeah," Katara waved him off. "So like I said, I got upset and started crying, and his solution to fix that was to tickle me until I stopped crying."

As much as Suki didn't want to admit it, their story was actually really cute so far. "Well no wonder people think that there's something between you guys," she chuckled. "You help each other stop crying by having tickle fights."

Aang and Katara laughed. "Yeah, you're probably right about that," Aang agreed. "That was the only thing I could think of at the time, but even if I had more time to try to plan something, I probably would have done the same thing anyways."

"So," Katara continued, "He tickled me, I tickled him, eventually he ended up straddling me and holding me down by my arms and we stared into each others eyes. Fortunately for me, he started leaning in first and I noticed and leaned in and we kissed," she finally finished the story, making sure to leave out what happened after the kiss.

Suki raised an eyebrow, "So what? You guys just kissed and were like 'I love you'? There's no way nothing else happened." Neither of them said anything, fearing if they did, the truth would come out. Her eyes shot open in realization. "You guys…" They both looked down in shame.

"Yeah…" Katara sighed. "We didn't mean for it to go that far, but I was so happy that he felt the same and we got caught up in the moment and it just led to us…"

"Cheating," Suki stated bluntly. "You cheated on Zuko." She shook her head at them. "Does he even know?" Neither of them answered her, giving her the answer anyway. "He deserves to know you guys. If he found out on his own, he would be devastated."

"But he'll be devastated either way," Katara argued. "At least if he doesn't find out, then we can spare him some pain. If we just tell him, then not only will he be even more heartbroken, he just might try to kill Aang."

Suki knew Katara had a point, but Zuko was her childhood best friend. She didn't want him to go his whole life without knowing that his best friend and his ex-girlfriend had an affair while he was hanging out with her at the game. "But Katara-"

"Please Suki," Katara almost begged. "I already feel horrible enough about it, but if he found out, he would only go even more downhill than he already is right now. I wasn't kidding when I said he might try to kill Aang." Aang gulped a little but stayed silent, waiting to see what would come out of it.

Although she knew that Zuko could still find out on his own, she knew that the best thing for them to do about it now was to just keep it quiet. If not for Zuko's sake, for Aang being able to keep his life. "Alright," Suki agreed reluctantly. "I won't tell him, but you guys better make sure that he doesn't find out about what you guys did. He's already been through enough with losing you, not to mention what kind of pain he would go through if he found out."

Katara let out a sigh of relief, "Thank you, Suki. I know it's not easy, but you know as well as I do that Zuko would lose his mind." She hugged her. "Again, I am really sorry I took Aang before you could get a chance to, but I hope that you can forgive me."

Suki smiled weakly at her," I already told you I would, so don't worry about it, Kat. I can see that you're sorry for betraying me, so I forgive you." Katara smiled and hugged her again, making Suki chuckle as she returned it.

"You know, you're always welcome for a threesome," Aang joked, making Suki laugh and Katara glare at him. "Relax Sweetie, I'm just kidding. Though if you ever changed your mind on it, I wouldn't say no."

"Thanks Aang, I'll keep it in mind," Suki grinned. "Alright, I suppose I should go home since we've sorted it all out now. I'll see you guys later." They both waved goodbye to her as she walked out the door and got back into her car. As she started up the car, she couldn't help but think about what if she had been in Zuko's situation. Wouldn't she have wanted to know about being cheated on, even if it only brought pain? She wasn't so sure herself, but she knew her childhood best friend better than anybody. He was a softie who tried to look like he was tough by putting up his defenses all of the time. The only times he would let them down was if he liked a girl or if it was around his closest friends. Though she knew it wasn't a good idea, she couldn't stop herself from dialing his number and putting it on speaker as she started driving home. _This should be interesting, but he deserves to know_, she thought with a sigh.

* * *

Zuko sighed as he took another sip. He was already on his third bottle and he had at least three more to go before he would be done. _Stupid Aang. He just _had _to take her away from me, didn't he?_, he thought bitterly. _Some best friend he is._ A knock on the door sounded. "Go away Uncle!" he slightly slurred.

Iroh opened the door anyway and walked in, noticing the empty bottles of liquor with horror. "Nephew!" He ran in and scooped up the bottles and threw them away. After that was done, he came back only to find that Zuko had opened another bottle. "Enough of that!" he chided and snatched the bottle away. "What's wrong, Nephew? Why do you feel the need to get drunk so early on a Saturday?"

"You don't want to know, Uncle," Zuko muttered.

"Yes, I do," Iroh argued gently. "I may not be your father, but you know as well as I do that I consider you to be my son. Now, tell me what's wrong?"

Zuko didn't respond for a few moments until he finally gave in. "Katara broke up with me," he admitted with a sad sigh.

Iroh looked at him with pity and understanding. "I am so sorry, Nephew." He wrapped him in a hug and rubbed circles on his back. "I know it must be hard for you."

"Yeah, it is," Zuko agreed bitterly. "Especially when the reason why is because your best friend stole her from me."

"What do you mean?" Iroh asked in surprise. He knew Aang almost as well as he knew Zuko. There was no doubt in his mind that Aang would never intentionally do anything to hurt his friends, so hearing this came as a bit of a shock.

"What part of 'my best friend stole her away from me' do you not get?" Zuko growled as he tried to reach for the bottle again, but Iroh wouldn't allow it.

He shook his head, "I only mean that Aang is not the kind of person to hurt his friends intentionally, so it's hard for me to believe that he would do something like that on purpose."

Zuko frowned. He knew he could try to make it seem like Aang was a monster, but he knew it wouldn't be fair to him or his uncle to lie about the situation. "He… didn't do it on purpose," he admitted, catching Iroh by surprise.

Iroh stroked his beard in thought. "So, you're saying he took her… but not on purpose?" Iroh questioned in confusion.

"No, Uncle," Zuko shook his head, "According to their story, he never meant for any of it to happen, but they ended up kissing and he discovered his feelings for her. He even said that he had tried to talk her out of it, but she convinced him to be with her."

Iroh couldn't help but be a little relieved. He knew that there was no way Aang would intentionally do that to his best friend; it wouldn't make sense otherwise. "Well, I am very sorry that you lost her, Nephew, but if I'm being honest, you two would not have worked out anyways."

Zuko looked at him curiously, "What do you mean?"

"I mean that your relationship with her would not have ended well if it had continued anyways," Iroh informed him. "I have seen how you both are. You both have a temper and are easily angered, something not ideal in a relationship. Not to mention that when her temper isn't controlling her, she is like the element she bends. And you are like your element all of the time. Either way, you both have and in the future would have clashed constantly. Fire and water don't mix, after all."

"Yeah," Zuko grumbled. "But fire and water makes steam," he countered.

Iroh shook his head at him, "Even if that's true, my Nephew, you seem to forget that neither of the elements survive when they come together. It may produce steam, which you young people associate with being 'hot', but that does not give an excuse for a relationship. They do not mix, but are lost as they produce something that will eventually turn into nothing." Iroh put a hand on his shoulder. "I am sorry that you lost her, but I promise you, you are better off. If you had continued down that path, it would only have ended in misery for both of you."

Zuko didn't want to admit it, but his Uncle was right. He and Katara might have gotten along sometimes, but they fought more often than not. Maybe Aang was doing him a favor by taking Katara before he could get deeper into it. He took a deep breath and looked up to him, "You're right, Uncle. This is for the best."

Iroh smiled, "I'm glad you agree, my Nephew." He stood up and started walking out the door. "Would you like some nice, relaxing Jasmine tea?"

"I'm okay, Uncle," he told him. He looked at him gratefully, "Thank you Uncle. For helping me see that this is for the best."

Iroh grinned, "It is my pleasure, Nephew. Now, if you change your mind on that tea, come and find me." Zuko nodded and he walked out and closed the door, remembering to bring the bottle of liquor with him. Zuko's phone started ringing and he dug it out of his pocket. _Suki? What does she want?_

"Hello?"

"Hey Zuko," Suki greeted him nervously. "How've you been?"

Zuko wondered why she sounded so nervous. She was never nervous around him before. "Um, I'm fine now that my Uncle has talked some sense into me. Why?"

"Well," Suki started with a gulp, "I find out something that you might not want to hear, but I thought you should at least have the option to, so whatever you decide, I'll go along with."

"Uh, I guess I'll just hear it then," Zuko decided. "It can't be _that_ bad, whatever it is."

Suki laughed nervously. "Yeah, we'll see what you say when I tell you."

Zuko frowned. "Well, at least spit it out then," he complained.

"Okay, if that's what you want." Suki paused for a moment. "I went over to yell at Katara for taking Aang before I could ask him out, but after they explained to me what happened, I figured out that something else happened that night."

Zuko's raised an eyebrow, "What else happened, Suks?"

She was silent again for another moment. "After they kissed, they said that eventually it led to them…" she trailed off, not wanting to say it out loud.

Fortunately for her, Zuko understood perfectly what had happened. "Oh," Zuko said quietly, barely containing his rage and hurt. _She cheated on me? _he thought angrily. Then another thought popped into his mind. That's _how he stole her from me. He seduced her!_

"Are you okay, Zuko?" she asked with concern.

Zuko took a few deep breaths before he trusted himself to speak. "Yeah, I'm fine," he lied, "I just didn't expect that to happen."

"Yeah, me neither," she agreed. "I'm so sorry, Zuko."

"Oh, it's fine," he rolled his eyes, "I gotta go Suks, Uncle's calling me down for dinner. Talk to you later." He hung up before she could say anything else. The weight of the truth she just laid on him came crashing down. _How could she do this to me? How could _he _do this to me?_ The anger started spiking out of control. He had never been one who was good at controlling his anger, and today was definitely no exception. "I'm going to kill him."


	5. Chapter 5: The Showdown

Chapter 5: The Showdown

**Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender. **

* * *

Suki knocked on the door slowly, not wanting to disturb them anymore than she was about to. She had decided that the best thing for her to do for her best friend was to console him at home while the pain no doubt was crashing down on him. It would take time for him to get over it, but she would be there for him every step of the way. Even if that meant sacrificing her own alone time to support him. A few minutes later, a worried looking Iroh answered the door. "Suki?" he asked in surprise. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh, I heard about Zuko's break up and wanted to be there for him," Suki explained. "I know he must be going through a tough time right now, and I know the best thing to get through that is to have your friends be there for you."

Iroh smiled knowingly at her, "Well, come on in for a minute so we can talk." Suki looked confused, but stepped inside as Iroh closed the door behind her. "I am going to get some tea from the kitchen. Would you like some?" he offered.

"Sure, if you don't mind," Suki said politely.

"Of course not," Iroh chuckled. "You are like family to Zuko and I." He paused for a moment. "Well, to me at least."

Suki quirked a brow, "What do you mean?"

He just waved her off and went into the kitchen as she took a seat on the couch in the living room. "I'll explain as we talk, Suki! Let me just get this tea real quick and we'll talk about what's going on." Suki wanted to argue, but she knew she would get the answers soon anyways, so she kept her mouth shut. Iroh came out a minute later with two steaming cups of tea and handed one to her.

"Thank you," Suki smiled. He smiled back and took a sip as she prepared herself for whatever he had to say. "So," she started, "what did you want to talk about?"

Iroh thought for a moment, wondering what the best way to approach the subject that he felt needed to be discussed was. "Well, I suppose I wanted to talk about you," he told her, catching her by surprise. "Or I should say you and Zuko anyways," he amended quickly.

"What about Zuko and I?" she asked warily. "Did you find out about the time that he and I pranked your cranky neighbor Zhao? Because if so, I would say I'm sorry, but I would be lying."

He laughed and shook his head. "No, no. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about how close you and Zuko are."

Her brows furrowed. "Okay? Is there a problem with how close Zuko and I are? I mean, we are best friends and everything, so it shouldn't be a problem."

"It's not a problem," he assured her. "In fact, your closeness may be the solution to help him get over his pain."

Suki's eyes widened in surprise. "How so?"

Iroh set his tea cup down onto the table and stared deeply into her eyes. "Suki, how long have you known Zuko?" he asked cautiously.

"Um, since I was three?" she asked more than answered. "Not to be rude or anything, but what does this have to do with helping Zuko feel better?"

"We'll get to that later, I promise," Iroh told her. "Now, how close do you feel to him? Is he just your best friend? Or is he something else to you?"

The way he was asking her these questions made Suki feel like he already knew the answers before she even did. "I mean, he _is_ my best friend and everything," she admitted, "but I don't know. I guess he could be like a brother to me." A weird taste came on her tongue as she said those words, but she ignored it and kept her attention on Iroh.

"Mhhmmm" he hummed doubtfully. "So he is a brother to you? Nothing else?"

Suki was started to get weirded out. _What is he trying to get at here? What's making him talk about this _now _out of all the times he could have chosen to talk to me about this?_ "Um… yeah. What else would he be?" she asked in confusion.

He stroked his beard in thought. "I knew that my Nephew hasn't figured it out yet, but I thought you would have by now," he mused. "Tell me Suki, what do you feel when you spend time with Zuko? Are you happy? Do you feel like you are free? Do you want to spend as much time with him as possible?"

She was taken aback by his questions. This was the last thing she would have suspected to talk about with him, but she responded all the same. "Well yeah, I'm usually pretty happy when I'm with him. We are best friends after all. I do feel sort of free when I'm with him, like I can truly be who I am around him." She took a moment to think about his last question. "I guess I do. I tend to think about him a lot, so I guess I probably do want to spend a lot of time with him," she admitted.

"Good, good," Iroh smiled. "I'm glad to hear it." Suki waited patiently for him to say something else, but he just kept sipping his tea in a comfortable silence.

"Uh, was there a reason for asking me those questions about how I am around Zuko?" Suki questioned. "Or was that just for kicks and giggles?"

He shook his head. "I assure you, that was not just for fun," he told her as he set his cup back on the table. "I asked these questions because there's something that you need to know."

She became even more confused, "What do you mean 'there's something that you need to know'? What do I need to know?"

Iroh let out a hearty laugh. "You're just as persistent as you were as a child, if not more." His face took on a serious look. "You and Zuko have been very close for years, as you have said. You have both developed a very close friendship, one that will last for a very long time." Suki motioned for him to continue. "Have you ever thought of Zuko in a… _romantic_ way?"

"What?" Suki asked in surprise. "Um… not really no. I mean, he's awesome and everything, but he's my best friend. Like I said earlier, I pretty much think of him as a brother." Iroh gave her a doubtful look. "What?"

"I've seen the way you and Zuko talk to each other," Iroh started, "and I can tell you with absolute certainty that it is not like brother and sister."

Suki raised a brow, "What do you mean?"

He looked around and picked up a photo that was sitting on the table and handed it to her. It was a picture of her kissing him on the cheek at the park as they sat underneath a tree. "Aw, I remember that day. That was the day that Zuko and I were playing tag at the park."

"Indeed," Iroh nodded with a smile. "You two have always had a very close relationship. Even when you both first met, I could tell that there was something… _special_ between you two."

"Special how?" Suki asked warily.

"Let me answer your question with another question," he said wisely. "Would you do anything for him, Suki?"

"Of course," she answered without hesitation.

He smiled, "And when he's in pain, are you in pain as well? If he is sad about something, are you sad too? Would you do whatever it takes to make him happy again, even if it meant sacrificing something that you really care about?"

"Yes," she answered him as if it was obvious. "He's my best friend, so of course I would. He means the world to me." Iroh gave her a knowing look and the truth hit her like a ton of bricks. "Oh my God. I'm in love with him," she gasped in realization. It all made sense. How often they would hang out together, how she always thought about him even when he wasn't around, how he always made her laugh and smile and made her feel like she could actually be herself. _I'm in love with him,_ she thought in amazement.

His smile grew wider. "Yes, you are. You have been for quite some time."

"Well, does he love me back?" she asked nervously.

"Of course he does!" Iroh chuckled. "He's just as in love with you as you are with him. Though he does not yet know it."

Suki became confused. "So why are you telling me this _now_? Is everything alright? Is something wrong?" she asked a little frantically.

Iroh frowned. "Well, I don't really know for sure," he admitted with a sigh. "All I know is about twenty minutes ago he ran out of here and said he was going over to Aang's. He appeared to be quite angry and looked like he wanted to cause harm."

"Shit," Suki muttered under her breath. "I think he's probably going to try to hurt Aang. He's still pretty upset about losing Katara to him," she explained.

"Well go," he ushered her quickly out the door. "He needs you right now. I don't want him doing something he will regret. Now go!"

Suki walked out quickly but turned back to smile at him. "Thank you for helping me so how I feel about him, Iroh. I really appreciate it," she said gratefully.

He grinned and gave her a quick hug, "Anything for my future niece-in-law."

She blushed but waved and ran to her car quickly. _Don't do anything you might regret Zuko,_ she pleaded in her mind. _I'll be there soon…_

* * *

Aang sat outside in his backyard with Katara as they relaxed by his pool. It was perfect weather as they lounged in his comfortable chair, enjoying the warm rays of the sun on their skin. They had decided after the little chat with Suki that it would probably be a good idea to get out of her house for a little while. Now they were cuddled up with each other as Aang softly stroked her hair, enjoying the feeling of having her so close to him. "Aang." He looked down to see her looking up at him.

"Yeah Kat?"

"Do you think that we made the wrong decision by not telling Zuko about what happened?" she asked. "The guilt is starting to really get to me."

He was silent for a moment. "Yeah… I do think it was the wrong decision. He deserves to know, but I know him very well. If he found out, he would get _very _angry, and that would not end well for anyone. Even though I know we made the wrong decision, I know that we're probably saving some trouble by not telling him," he finally said.

"Well… do you think we should tell him? I mean, he deserves to know." She paused in thought as she dug her face into his chest. "I know I would want to know if something like that happened. It would hurt a lot, but I would rather know than be left in the dark about it."

"Yeah, me neither," he agreed and kissed her head. "If you want to, we can go tell him."

Her head looked back up to him. "Really?"

"Of course," he took her hand and kissed it. "I don't want to keep it from him either, and I'll do whatever it takes to make you happy and the best you can be."

She beamed and kissed him passionately, making him laugh against her lips. They pulled apart as the need for air became too great. "I love you so much, Aang. You have no idea how much you mean to me."

He chuckled and kissed her cheek, "I think I have an idea." Taking her face in his hands, he forced her to look him in the eyes. "I know we've only been together for not even a day, but I am madly and desperately in love with you, Kat. I know we have a long way to go in our relationship, and this might be a little crazy to say after not even going on an official date yet, but… if we had the chance to get married today, I would be all for it. I know without a doubt in my mind that I want to spend the rest of my life with you." He searched her face as several emotions fought for dominance on it, but it finally settled on pure happiness. She smashed her lips to his as happy tears flowed down her face, mixing in with the taste of each others' lips.

"Aww. What a touching moment," a voice drawled sarcastically from the side of the house. Their head whipped around to see Zuko standing there looking very angry. "Sorry to have to ruin it. Oh wait, no I'm not."

Aang got up quickly and stared him down. "What are you doing here, Zuko? How did you even know we were here?"

Zuko just smirked evilly in return. "I went over to Sokka's place, but you guys weren't there and he told me that you guys came here," he told him. "And as for what I'm doing here… I know about what you two did."

"What we did?" Aang raised an eyebrow before comprehension flooded over him. "Oh."

"'Oh'?" Zuko sneered, "That's all you have to say?" He laughed a little deliriously. "You seduced the girl I love into leaving me, and all you have to say is 'oh'?"

"I didn't seduce her, Zuko," Aang objected. "I'm sorry that things happened the way they did, but neither of us were planning on going that far. I already told you, I didn't even know that I loved her until we kissed. How did you even find out?"

Zuko rolled his eyes and stepped closer to them, making Aang grab Katara and put her behind him. "Suki told me. I had to hear it from my childhood best friend, not even from the people who wronged me." He shook his head at them. "Some best friend you are… seducing my girlfriend and having her leave me."

Aang knew that he wasn't in any position to talk, but he needed to make sure Zuko understood what really happened. "Look Zuko, I know that you think I seduced her on purpose, but let me assure you: I didn't. We-"

"I don't care what you did!" Zuko yelled. "Here's what I _do_ know: You and her kissed and that led to her cheating on me. You can talk all you want, Aang, but I know the truth, and you're going to pay for making her cheat on me."

Katara finally spoke up, "Zuko, no one made me cheat on you! We kissed and it just led to it happening! I'm sorry that you got so hurt that you feel like you need to take it out on him, but this isn't the right way to go about us! Go ahead and yell at us! Scream your head off if you want! I understand that you're very hurt, but this doesn't mean that anyone has to get hurt!" she protested.

"It's a little too late for that, Katara," Zuko laughed bitterly. "Because _I'm _already hurt. And now it's _his_ turn to hurt for taking you away from me." His hands caught fire and he got into a fighting stance. "Fight me!" Katara was about to start fighting him when Aang held her back.

"No. This isn't your fight, Kat. It's mine," he told her. "I'm the one who wronged him. I'll fight him, that way he doesn't get hurt more than he needs to." Katara tried to protest but he shut her up with a quick kiss. "It's alright, this is what he needs. If he wins, then don't try to avenge me."

"But Aang-" he gave her a look. After a few moments of staring into his eyes, she sighed and gave in. "Fine. But if he does do anything to hurt you, I don't know if I'll be able to hold myself back."

"It's going to be okay," he promised and kissed her softly. She nodded slowly and stepped back as Aang turned back to Zuko. "Alright Zuko, if you want to fight then we'll fight. But before we do, I just want to say how sorry I am that everything went down like it did. I never wanted to hurt anyone, and I know you don't believe me, but I didn't do any of what happened on purpose."

"Whatever," Zuko scowled. "Let's just fight!" He shot some flames at Aang who narrowly avoided them, setting a tree on fire in the process.

Aang air bent them out quickly and turned his attention back to Zuko. "Look, I know you obviously want to kill me, but can you not harm other things while you try to do that? I don't want innocent creatures getting hurt because of me," he pleaded with him.

"Ever the air bender," Zuko rolled his eyes. "Thinking about all other life before your own. You should really be more concerned for your own safety. There's a far better chance of their survival than yours!" he shouted as he kicked out more flames towards Aang. Aang just air bent them as they came towards him and shook his head at his friend.

"Zuko, I know you're hurt deeply, but it doesn't have to be this way!" he called from the other side of the yard. "We can still be friends and forget about all of this! It's not too late!"

Zuko frowned and glared at him. "Yes, yes it is. It became too late when you took her away from me!" Aang jumped up in the tree as Zuko tried to shoot more fireballs at him, setting that part of the fence on fire. Aang quickly extinguished it just in time to see Zuko start up the motions for lightning. He jumped from the tree onto his roof, just narrowly avoiding the bolt as it grazed his skin. "Aw, did I hurt you?" Zuko taunted him. "Do you need your girlfriend to bandage you up?" Aang didn't say anything as another bolt shot towards him. He dodged it and let it zoom past him as he sent a large wave of air at Zuko, who jumped out of the way before it could knock him down. "So you're finally fighting back, huh?"

"I don't want to!" Aang shouted back, "But you're not leaving me much choice!" He jumped down from the roof and started taking the offensive, much to Zuko's displeasure. His offensive attacks mixed with his air bender avoid and evade instincts made him a difficult foe to fight. Aang jumped up high above Zuko and blew air down at him, causing Zuko to be temporarily disoriented. He used that to his advantage and knocked Zuko off of his feet with a sweep of his legs as he hit the ground, making Zuko fall on his face. "You can give up now, Zuko! I don't want to fight you!"

Zuko quickly got back up on his feet and faced him. "I'm not giving up until you pay for what you've done!" Long strands of flames shot out of his hands as he used them as fire whips. One whip went straight for Aang while the other curved behind him to trap him. He was unfortunate, however, when Aang just side-stepped them and the two whips crashed into each other. Zuko was rapidly losing control; his rage consuming all logical thoughts when he made a decision. Using everything he had in him, he shot a giant blast of fire at Aang who made a bad judgement call and walked right into it.

"AANG!" Katara screamed as Aang was shot back into the back of a tree. She ran up to him but was cut off by a fire wall created by Zuko that surrounded her. "Let me go, Zuko!"

"No," he told her coldly. "He has earned this by taking you away from me." Slowly walking up to him, he picked up the now bleeding and burning Aang by his shirt and looked him in the eyes as he held a flame to his head. "For what it's worth, I'm sorry."

"Yeah… me too," Aang responded weakly. He sucked in a large breath and blew out a strong blast of air out of his mouth and shot Zuko back across the yard, knocking him back into the fence hard. Zuko became dazed as he tried to stand up, but found that he couldn't without support from the almost broken fence. Once he finally regained his bearings, he was about to start up some more lightning when he heard a "Zuko!" from behind him. He turned around to see…

"Suki?" he asked in astonishment. "What are you doing here?" His eyes narrowed at her. "You're here to defend Aang, aren't you?"

She finally ran up to him and took his face in her hands. "Zuko, this needs to stop! I know what they did isn't right, but that doesn't mean that you should kill him because of it!"

"Oh yeah?" he challenged her. "Why shouldn't I? He seduced the girl I love and took her away from me! He deserves everything he's got coming to him!"

Aang got up as Katara bent some water from the pool to take out the surrounding fire and came running up to him as he finally lost his vast amount of patience. "I DIDN'T SEDUCE HER, ZUKO! GET THAT THROUGH YOUR DAMN HEAD!" he screamed at the top of his lungs. Everyone stood there in utter silence as he panted angrily, glaring at Zuko. Once he trusted himself enough to speak, he let out a long breath. "Look Zuko, I know that it seems like I did, but you know me enough by now that I wouldn't do that. And I'm a little ashamed of you that you would think so lowly of me that I would do that. I _never_ seduced her, man. I'm sorry that everything happened this way, but it did, and there's no going back," he finished tiredly.

Zuko took a deep breath as well and let his anger out slowly. As much as he didn't want to admit it, Aang had a point. He knew his friend too well by now to know that he wasn't that kind of guy, and that he would never intentionally betray his friends. Finally letting all of his anger and hurt go, he walked up to Aang and stuck out his hand. "Truce?"

"Truce," Aang agreed and shook his hand. Before they could stop, Aang leaned in to him and looked seriously into his eyes. "I know this won't mean anything to you, but I really am sorry about how everything went down. I never wanted any of this to happen, least of all to my best friend. Friends?"

"Friends," Zuko nodded and let go of his hand. "I'm sorry that I tried to kill you. I let my emotions get the best of me. I won't let it happen again."

Aang clapped him on the shoulder. "It's alright, man. I understand. I probably would've been just as upset as you are. Let's just keep it where it belongs: In the past." Zuko smiled a little and nodded, walking back over to Suki while Katara fussed over Aang.

"Are you okay? Do you have any broken bones? Do you-" he cut her off with a kiss.

"I'm alright, Kat," he assured her. "Just a few scrapes and bruises." She pulled water out from the pool and got to work on him while Zuko hugged Suki.

"Thank you," Zuko whispered gratefully.

Suki raised an eyebrow. "For what?" she asked curiously as she hugged him back.

He pulled back from the hug to look her in the eyes, "For stepping in when you did. If you hadn't, I might have killed him. The only thing holding me back was because I didn't want to look like a monster in front of you."

"Really?" she smiled.

"Of course," he smiled back. "You mean everything to me, Suks. You just being here reminds me that I'm not a killer. You've helped me in so many ways, and I don't ever want to disappoint you." Tears streamed down from Suki's eyes as he laughed. "Wow, look what you've done to me. You've turned me into a softie," he teased.

Suki didn't say anything for a moment. Taking a risk, she grabbed him by his face and smashed her lips against his, taking him completely by surprise. After a few moments of pure shock, his lips moved against hers and they both sighed in contentment.

"Well, looks like we've got a new couple in the group," Aang teased while Katara's jaw dropped to the ground.

They remembered that they had company and quickly split apart, blushing heavily in embarrassment as the other couple laughed. "Hey, no one said to stop," Katara jumped in on teasing them. "Don't stop on our account. You guys seemed to be really enjoying yourselves there."

"Shut up, Katara!" Suki glared at her.

"Or what?" Aang broke back in. "You'll kiss Zuko to death? Oh, I'm so scared!" he grinned mischievously.

"Aang," Zuko warned him with a glare.

"What?" Aang asked innocently. "Is there a problem here? Let me try to think about what just happened in the last couple of minutes…" he trailed off in pretend thought while rubbing his chin. "Hmmm, let's see. We had just called a truce, and then Katara came over to me and healed me, and then you and Suki had a big make out session…" he wiggled his eyebrows at him. He would have continued with torturing his friend, but Zuko shot a fireball at him and decided against it. "Okay, okay. I'll drop it." He lowered his voice so that only Katara could hear it. "For now."

Katara snickered and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Be nice," she ordered him.

"Yes ma'am!" he fake saluted, making her giggle and gave her a hug while Suki and Zuko were kissing again. They all stood there with their partners for several minutes until they finally let go and looked to each other. "So, we're all okay?" They all nodded in agreement. "Good, I'm glad to hear it," he sighed in relief. "Now how about we go have some fun?"

"I'm not doing a foursome, Aang," Suki deadpanned.

"That's not what I'm talking about, Suki," he chuckled. "I mean let's go see a movie or something."

Suki blushed in embarrassment. "Oh, that makes more sense." Zuko chuckled and kissed her on the cheek, making her blush even more despite having just kissed him not even two minutes ago. They all made their way to their cars and went to have a night on the town.

* * *

_2 Weeks Later…_

Zuko and Suki walked up to Sokka's house hand in hand, excited for a fun night with their friends. "Do you think I look okay in this dress?" Suki asked him worriedly.

He smiled, "Of course you do. You look great in literally everything." Leaning down into her ear, he whispered softly, "Or nothing at all." Earning him a playful slap on the shoulder.

"Zuko!" she scoffed while he just laughed and knocked on the door. A few minutes later, Sokka came to the door with a wide grin on his face.

"Hey guys! Come on in! I've got meat cooking on the grill and there are drinks waiting in the cooler in the backyard," he ushered them in. Walking out to the backyard, they were welcomed by none other than the happy couple lounging on a floater as it slowly drifted around in the pool.

Katara looked up from her position on Aang's chest and smiled. "Hey guys!" she greeted them cheerily. "Come on in! The water's just fine!"

"Oh yeah?" Suki yelled back. "How would you know if you're not even _in _the water?"

"Touche, Suki," Katara laughed. "Touche." Suki just smiled in return and sat down on a chair with Zuko while Sokka handed everyone their food. He tried to offer Aang some, but he politely declined.

"What do you mean you don't eat meat?" Sokka gasped in disbelief.

Aang rolled his eyes. "Sokka, I've known you since the third grade. Are you seriously telling me that all of this time you never knew I was a vegetarian?"

"Nope," Sokka told him in all honesty. "I had no clue. I just thought you were trying to be nice and let everyone else have the meat." Everyone laughed as he blushed in embarrassment.

"Well, now you know," Aang grinned. "Though I wouldn't be surprised if you forgot by the next time we have a hangout."

Toph spoke up, "Yeah, me neither. He's forgotten that I'm blind at least a hundred times."

"And he's forgotten that I'm not a little girl anymore," Katara put in.

Zuko and Suki looked at each other, "And-"

"Okay, okay! We get it!" Sokka grumbled as he took a bite out of his burger. "Can we move on to something else, please?" Everyone laughed again and talked and enjoyed their food. After a little while, they all went inside to play some games with each other. As Zuko went into the kitchen to grab a drink, Katara followed him in and spoke up.

"Hey Zuko, can we talk for a second?"

"Um, sure," he responded weirdly, wondering what she wanted to talk about. He leaned back against the counter and waited for her to say what she needed to say.

"Look, I just wanted to say that I'm sorry," she explained.

He quirked an eyebrow. "Sorry? What are you sorry for?"

"For everything that happened two weeks ago," she told him. "I know that you must have been in a lot of pain and hurt, and I feel horrible about everything that happened, so I just wanted to let you know how sorry I am that everything happened like it did."

Zuko smiled and waved her off, "Don't worry about it, Katara. Us breaking up was the best thing that ever happened to me." He paused and looked over to see his girlfriend laughing and flicking Sokka on his forehead after beating him at rock-paper-scissors as his smile widened. He returned his attention to her, "If nothing had happened between you and Aang, I wouldn't have gotten the chance to be with Suki, so there's nothing to be sorry for. Everything happened as it should have. I don't regret anything that has happened since then."

"Really?" she asked hopefully.

"Really," he assured her. "Suki's made me the happiest I've been in a long time, and I can't believe it took me this long to realize that I love her."

Katara chuckled a little. "Yeah, I know what you mean." She turned to look to see Aang making funny faces at Sokka behind his back, making her giggle as Sokka was completely unaware of his best friend making fun of him. Aang looked up and smiled widely as he saw her giggling. He winked and went back to his one-sided taunting and she looked back to Zuko. "All of that time I wasted thinking that we were just friends, and now look where we are. Here at a party with our soulmates."

Zuko gulped a little. "Soulmates?" Katara gave him a look and he sighed in resignation. "Fine, I know that she's my soulmate."

Katara smiled in response and stuck out her hand. "Friends?"

"Friends," he agreed as he shook it. "Now if you'll excuse me, the girl of my dreams looks like she's about to get smacked with a piece of meat, so I'd better step in." She laughed and nodded as he walked out of the kitchen to help his girlfriend. To her surprise, Aang snuck around and wrapped his arms around her.

"How'd it go, Sweetie?" he asked as he kissed her cheek.

She smiled and turned around to look at him. "Oh, it went just fine. He said that him and I splitting up was the best thing to ever happen to him, and we're back to being good friends."

"Good," he grinned and pulled her close. "I would hate it if the love of my life and my best friend couldn't get along."

"Aang," she rolled her eyes but couldn't hide the giant smile on her face. He smiled back and kissed her softly, making her sigh against his lips. He slowly pulled back and stared into her eyes. "I love you, Aang."

"I love you too, Kat," he kissed her forehead and held her close, feeling her rapid heartbeat against his.

"Hey guys!" Sokka called over from the dining room. "You guys need to get over here so we can play some games!"

Katara rolled her eyes and turned around to look at her older brother. "We'll be there in a second, Sokka!" She turned back to Aang and took his hand. "Are you ready?"

He smiled warmly at her, "I'm always ready if it means I get to do it with you."

She blushed and laughed, "You are so cheesy sometimes." Quickly kissing his cheek, she squeezed his hand and walked towards the dining room. "Fortunately for you, I like cheesy." He laughed in return and followed her out as they all set up for the game. As she watched all of her friends smiling faces, she knew that though they had all been through a lot over the last couple of weeks, everything had turned out just as she had hoped it would and that she would be grateful for that for the rest of her life.

**The End**.

* * *

**Thanks for reading guys! I know this story was very short, but I wasn't planning on this being a long one in the first place, and it just worked out well that I could finish it in this chapter. I'm not one to write dramatic stories, but I enjoyed writing this one and I'm more than happy to give it a happy ending, as I feel all stories should since there's enough bad ones in the real world as it is. Anyways, I've got a couple of new projects coming up such as a Remastering of Avatar: The Last Airbender itself! It's going to be like the show itself episodes-wise, but there will be different twists and will be more romance involved (especially for Kataang). This version of it will be what I believe should have happened in the show. Now don't get me wrong, I absolutely love ATLA, but there were a lot of things that the show was lacking and could have been better if some of the things about the characters had been different, as you guys will see if you choose to read it. But anyways, thank you guys so much for reading, and I hope you guys enjoyed it! **


End file.
